Destiny Trilogy Part 1: The War
by LaMuerta
Summary: From the moment he entered the wizarding world, Harry Potter has been told he is special. Now he's about to find out why. (rated PG due to possible creature violence and mild language. NO slash!) *COMPLETED*
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JKR, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

Anyone expecting me to repeat this disclaimer before subsequent chapters will have their still-beating hearts dug out with a spoon.

Chapter 1: The Beginning

"Harry, pass those cauldron cakes over here will you?" Ron mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate frog. Harry grinned as he watched his friend wolf down cakes and sweets like there was no tomorrow. Well, of course there was a very real possibility that there wouldn't be one. Just last year, Harry had witnessed the rebirth of the Dark Lord Voldemort. It wouldn't be long before he regained full power, especially since many of his followers had gladly returned to his side. Harry turned away pretending to be interested in the passing countryside outside so Ron wouldn't see the haunted look that had come into his eyes and Ginny wouldn't notice anything amiss than what she had already been told.

For Harry's safety, Dumbledore had flatly refused to have Harry leave Privet Drive before it was absolutely necessary, even if he would be with the Weasleys. He hadn't even been allowed to make a trip down to Diagon Alley, thus his new schoolbooks and supplies had been bought by Professor McGonagall. Although he was normally sick of being cut off from the wizarding world every summer, Harry was almost happy to go back to the boring normalcy of getting bullied by the Dursleys during his vacation. And for the first time in his life, Harry had almost dreaded going back to Hogwarts.

But the moment he stepped on Platform 9¾, he had felt as if most of these horrible pessimistic thoughts were being swallowed in the billowy smoke of the Hogwarts Express—for he had friends here, he had Quidditch here, and he definitely belonged here. He had so much to catch up with Ron and Hermione! But Hermione had been made Prefect this year, so she was sitting in the Prefects compartment this year instead, leaving Harry, Ron and Ginny to speculate over what was happening at the Ministry of Magic.

 "You know Fudge. He's still ignoring all the missing person reports," Ron told him. "Pretending he's totally in control and You-Know-Who is just a legend or something. And he keeps saying he has absolute faith in the Dementors, as if anyone in his right mind would trust those monsters."

At least Percy, being a Weasley after all despite his overwhelming deference to authority, had come around somewhat and no longer took Fudge's word for the law.

Ginny had other news too; apparently their mother had been very pleased with the appointment of a new teacher, but she wouldn't tell them who. Just as they were discussing possible candidates, some of their classmates popped in to say hello, and very soon the Gryffindor fifth years were crammed into the compartment, making wild guesses at who'd take over the Defence Against the Dark Arts job.

"A vampire maybe."

"As long as Snape doesn't get it this time, Potions is bad enough…"

 "I don't want Mad-eyed Moody back! Maybe they'll get some other Auror…"

"But my Mom was positively jumping for joy! I don't think she'd be _happy if another mental-case got appointed!"_

"Maybe they'll let Professor Lupin come back! After all a werewolf is way better than a Death Eater…"

Malfoy and his two sidekicks were nowhere to be seen, much to the delight of Ron ("Maybe they finally transferred to Durmstrang!"). 

As night fell, the Hogwarts express pulled into Hogsmeade Station, its bright scarlet outline barely visible in the foggy night air. They waited for the familiar booming voice calling out, "Firs'-years! Over here now!", as they stepped down from the train, but all they heard was the unnerving silence of the darkness and the chattering of students as they surveyed their chances of finding their way through the thick fog enveloping them. Harry and Ron exchanged worried looks.

"Hermione!" called Ginny as she spotted her, seemingly in conference with the other Prefects. "What's happening?"

"I don't know what we're going to do with all the first years," she frowned. "Hagrid's never this late." Harry squinted into the darkness. "There seems to be some sort of lantern over there!" He and Ron hurried over to the source of the light, but all they could see was the spot of dim light.

"Hagrid?" Ron asked the bobbling lantern tentatively.

"No, Mr. Weasley, I'm afraid Hagrid has some urgent matters to attend to," answered Professor McGonagall, as she stepped out of the gloom.

They clambered into a carriage with Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom. Neither of them spoke much, Harry especially lost in his worry for Hagrid. He strongly suspected Hagrid and Madam Maxime had gone to negotiate with the giants somewhere up a foreign mountain range, and his heart couldn't seem to help sinking to somewhere in the region of his toes. When the carriages finally stopped, Harry could almost feel the heaviness in their steps echoing on the flagged stone as the older students trudged into the Entrance Hall.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-the-term feast. Candles floated above them casting light all over the shiny gold plates, a stark contrast to the foggy grey darkness of the enchanted ceiling. Harry was mildly surprised to realise that there were much less people at the Slytherin table, which was almost half-empty. "Unfortunately Malfoy's mother still seems to love him," Ron scowled as he spotted the familiar pale face snarling at them. Harry agreed as he spotted the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team, though he suspected the real reason was that they were just trying to keep up appearances to not seem suspicious.

They found seats next to the rest of the Gryffindor team. Wood had made Angelina the Gryffindor captain the previous year, and she was discussing when to hold the try-outs to find a new keeper. 

"Interested, ickle baby Ronniekins?" asked Fred

"Stop calling me that," Ron said crossly. "Besides I'm hopeless at playing Keeper, you guys know that."

"There'll be try-outs for Chaser and Beater too," Alicia told him. "Almost the entire team is graduating this year you know."

"Plus we need some reserves." Katie agreed. 

Ron brightened up upon hearing the news. "Cool! What do you think my chances are of getting to be a Chaser next year?"

But Harry was more interested in looking for the new teacher. He looked up at the staff table, where most of the teachers were already seated. Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster was seated in the middle of the table, his sweeping silver hair and beard shining in the candlelight. He seemed a lot older; paler, and his wrinkles more pronounced, but his eyes still twinkled merrily behind his half-moon spectacles. Harry noticed an empty seat next to Dumbledore's where Professor McGonagall was usually seated. The chair on her other side where Professor Snape, Harry's least favourite teacher usually sat, was also empty. On the other side of Dumbledore, where Hagrid usually sat, was another empty chair. But next to it was…

"It's…it's Fleur Delacour!" Harry whispered to Ron. "She's the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" 

Ron whipped around and gaped at her, mouth hanging half-open like a goldfish. She saw them and waved happily, and they waved back uncertainly.

"We've got a half-Veela for a teacher?" Hermione said, nose wrinkled with displeasure as she joined sat down next to Ginny, her Prefect badge glimmering under the candlelight.

"How _could_ you speak ill of a teacher?" George asked in mock horror. "You're a _Prefect—"_

"And a Prefect should uphold the honour of the school, enforce the school rules and mete out punishments impartially and justly," recited Hermione. "I know the Prefects' Handbook by heart, and you're right George, it wasn't nice of me to say that about Fl… Professor Delacour." 

The twins stared at her with an expression of pure terror on their faces.

"You'd want to watch that one," Fred told Ron, who was still staring at Fleur with a rather vacant look on his face. "I never thought I'd see something worse then Perfect Prefect Percy, but she's getting there." 

Just then the great doors opened and the first years stumbled in after Professor McGonagall. When the last of the first years had joined the line in front of the three-legged stool, a stocky red-headed man shut the doors with his tanned, muscled arms. He spotted them and winked.

"Charlie?" the four Weasleys exclaimed in disbelief as he made his way up to the staff table. 

"No wonder Mom was so pleased," Ginny said after she got over the shock, waving happily at Charlie. Charlie was Ginny's favourite brother besides Ron. Harry on the other hand found his happiness had a dark shadowy edge. He liked Charlie too, but he was beginning to miss Hagrid already.

Professor McGonagall set the old Sorting Hat on the stool and stood back. The whole school went quiet as they watched it. Then the hat twitched and the tear near the brim opened wide as the hat began to sing:

_I may seem like a tattered old cap_

_But that's not all I am;_

_If you can find a cleverer hat,_

_I'll shut up like a clam!_

_Just try me on and you will find_

_There's nothing I don't know_

_Let's sort those thoughts and then decide_

_On where you ought to go!_

_Perhaps you'll be a Gryffindor,_

_If bravery is your thing;_

_'Twas bold and daring Gryffindor_

_Who gave me brains to sing!_

_Or you might be in Ravenclaw,_

_Where the wise are found to dwell;_

_She was the cleverest of the Four,_

_As far as I could tell!_

_You might find friends in Hufflepuff,_

_Who are loyal, just and true;_

_Helga mended me bit by bit_

_With lots of patience too!_

_Or you might be a Slytherin,_

_Where the power-hungry rule;_

_Salazar would have stopped at nothing,_

_Don't treat them like they're fools!_

_Though times are dark and hope is thin_

_And the future looks real glum,_

_Don't fret, don't worry, pull yourself up_

_For good things are sure to come!_

The school burst into applause as the hat went silent. Then the sorting began.

"Alberforth, Gary!"

"_Hufflepuff_!"

"Brickwell, Jerry!"

"_Ravenclaw_!"  
Harry tuned out the sorting, suddenly acutely aware that he was immensely hungry, but registering that they had only just began on the 'C's. Then he heard a name that jerked him out of his thoughts:

"Chang, Yue!"

He whipped his head around to the Ravenclaw table, scanning the heads for Cho. It was unmistakable, that smile on her face—it was her sister who was being sorted. The Sorting Hat took a long time to decide. At last, it bellowed,

"_Gryffindor_!"

Harry noticed Cho's smile falter a little, but she clapped hard for her sister as she joined the Gryffindor table. Cho turned around and her eyes met his. He turned away. Looking at Cho reminded him of Cedric.

After what seemed like an eternity, "Yeller, Calvin" was made a Ravenclaw. The school turned expectantly towards Dumbledore, waiting for him to start the feast. But Professor McGonagall did not put away the Sorting Hat or the stool. She stood very still, looking straight at the great oak doors, as if waiting for something. Then the door of the Great Hall opened once again, and a man with greasy black hair and sallow skin swept in, his black robes billowing behind him.

"Snape," groaned Ron. 

Behind him was pale girl with sea-green eyes, her dark wavy hair cascading like an ebony waterfall to her waist. She was wearing Hogwarts robes, but she was almost the same height as Hermione, too tall to be a first year. 

"Great, just what we needed. Malfoy's sister," said Ron as she was escorted by Snape up to the Sorting Hat and stopped in front of Professor McGonagall. Harry couldn't help agreeing with him. Although the new girl had dark hair, there was a coldness about her that reminded him irresistibly of Mrs. Malfoy. But apparently they were wrong.

"Ladon, Kera!"

The new girl stepped forward. Unlike the decision to place Malfoy, which had taken mere seconds, she sat there for more than two minutes.

"Bet you two butterbeers she goes to Slytherin," Ron whispered to Harry.

"_Gryffindor_!" The hat proclaimed. 

There was stunned silence for a moment before the Gryffindor table started applauding, and from the look on Snape's face Harry swore he was as surprised as they were. Albus Dumbledore stood up smiling. "Let the feast begin!"

Harry and Ron were so busy eating from the magically filled plates, they couldn't speak for a full ten minutes. 

"Weird huh?" Ron finally said through a chunk of pork chop. "I really thought that Ladon girl would be in Slytherin."

"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, Ron," Hermione scolded. "She might be very nice."

"But _Snape_ escorted her in," Ron protested.

"And did you see the look on Snape's face when she got sorted into Gryffindor?" Harry asked. "He looked like he swallowed a couple of lemons."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said nothing.

They had gotten the password from Hermione ("Jobberknoll") and were about to make their way back to the Gryffindor common room when they were stopped by McGonagall. 

"Could I see the both of you for a moment?"

Harry and Ron exchanged uneasy looks, remembering the thorough hexing they had given Malfoy and his cronies on the Hogwarts Express at the end of last year. They followed her down the dark stone corridor to her office and sat down nervously.

"I want an explanation from the both of you." She said sternly.

Harry gulped. From the look on her face it looked as though Gryffindor would be at negative points until Halloween.

"Um…well…"

"We…err…"

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at them. She reached into her drawer and placed two shiny Prefect badges on the desk in front of them.

"What are your reasons for declining the post?"

The relief must have shown on their faces, because her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"My results aren't very good and I've done nothing much for the school, really," Ron replied hastily. "And I've broken a few school rules…"

"More than a few in fact, Mr. Weasley." Professor McGonagall said dryly. "What about you, Mr. Potter?"

Harry looked down at his feet. Cedric had been a Prefect. Cedric might have been the Head Boy this year…if he hadn't…

"I don't deserve it," Harry replied quietly, wishing his voice wouldn't choke up like that and Ron would turn away.

"Both of you have done great services to this school," McGonagall said gently. "Even if you _have_ broken hundreds of school rules along the way. I think the both of you are the best suited for the job in your year, and I trust my own judgement."

"Besides," she said smiling slightly, "you realise that Mr. Malfoy has been made Prefect as well this year."

She had said the magic words. Harry snapped out of his brooding and Ron looked as if someone had just punched him hard in the stomach. 

"I trust you will be taking up your posts then," McGonagall said, smiling as she handed them their badges.  

They made their way back to the Common Room, not talking. When they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Harry stopped.

"Ron…why did you decline the post?" Harry knew Ron would have loved to be Head Boy like his oldest brother Bill.

"Figured you wouldn't want to either," Ron mumbled to his feet. "Besides, who wants to end up like Percy?"

Harry smiled as he followed his best friend into the portrait-hole, the first real smile he had smiled for weeks. It was good to be home.


	2. Chapter 2: The New Girl

Chapter 2: The New Girl

Mist was gathering in the dark, overgrown graveyard. Not too far away, Harry could just make out a faint outline of the Riddle house, looming ominously like a vague monster. Sensing someone behind him, he turned sharply.

_Cedric Diggory. _

Harry opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. There was something wrong with the fact that Cedric was standing just behind him, but Harry couldn't point out just what was so wrong. They exchanged weak smiles. Then out of the fog, hooded and masked figures began to appear, forming a circle around the two boys. Harry turned to find himself facing a pair of livid scarlet eyes set in a thin, deathly pale face. Seemingly from very far away, he heard high, cold laughter and a voice almost whisper in his ear, "_Kill the spare." A bright flash of eerie green light blinded him as the curse hit someone behind him, and then the screaming began, echoing over and over again with increasing volume, and it wasn't just Cedric anymore, it was his parents as well, and it just went on and on…_

"Harry! Harry! Wake up, it's alright, it was just a nightmare…"

Harry jerked awake with a start, sweat and tears mingling on his face, belatedly realising that it was he who had been screaming. Without his glasses, he could just make out blurred outlines of four someones standing by his bed. He grabbed at his glasses and sat up. He was still safe and sound in his dorm with the four-poster beds and scarlet curtains. The other fifth-year boys were crowded around his bed, looking pale and worried…and tired. Harry felt bad immediately. It was the third time he'd woken the dorm up this month.

"Sorry guys," he mumbled.

"But Harry…" Ron began.

"No, I'm okay, really," Harry replied firmly. "It was just a nightmare that's all. Go back to sleep."

After the dorm had gone quiet again, Harry lay on his back, eyes wide open, afraid of going back to sleep. He had tried not to think about the events of the past year, but it was hard. For the first two weeks of the summer holidays, he had woken up the Dursleys every night with his screaming from that very same dream. After locking him up in his room and even belting him once, his uncharacteristic silence had turned their initial anger and irritation into fear and even worry. By the time Aunt Marge popped by for her yearly visit the Dursleys had been worried enough to excuse Harry from her presence by pretending he was down with something nasty and contagious. Harry hadn't really cared. Even though he did know, deep down inside, that he couldn't blame himself for everything that had happened, it didn't stop making him feel that for once, he deserved the insults. _Jinx! You're nothing but trouble and bad luck to everyone around you! Should have been drowned as an infant! Worthless, useless thing…should have been the one who died…it's all your fault…_

Harry stayed awake staring at the ceiling until dawn.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"It's unforgivable!" Ron bellowed as they made their way up the stairs to Charms class. Some second years turned to look at what he was getting so angry about.

"Ron, get a hold on yourself," Hermione snapped, barely able to control her own anger as well. 

They had just heard from a furious Angelina that Katie Bell, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, had been seriously injured by Adrian Montague, who also played Chaser on the Slytherin team.

"They should suspend him! I can't believe they accepted his pathetic excuse!" Ron thundered. "He deliberately pushed her down the stairs when it was changing!"

Harry was so angry he couldn't even speak. Montague must have done it in blind revenge since Gryffindor had broke the Slytherin winning streak by winning the Quidditch Cup the previous year. He was so upset he didn't see where he was going and bumped into someone.

"Oops, sorry," he said as the someone dropped her heavy Runes textbook. Straightening up, he was surprised to find himself handing the book back to Kera Ladon.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Potions?" Harry blurted out as she muttered her thanks. He had memorised the first year timetables just in case he could be of any help to Yue Chang, Cho's sister. Kera eyed him, looking slightly amused.

"And how would _you_ know where I'm supposed to be?"

"First years shouldn't be wandering along the corridors on their own," Hermione said bossily, stepping forward. "Are you lost? I'll bring you down to the dungeons."

"I can find my own way, thank you," Kera replied curtly, making a move to leave.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of you know," Hermione persisted patiently. "Besides we're Prefects, Professor Flitwick would understand if we were late for class."

"Speak for yourself." Kera shot her a contemptuous Malfoy-ish look, and walked away.

"Honestly," sighed Hermione exasperatedly as Kera went down the third floor corridor.

"Maybe she decided to skip Snape and go off to the library," Ron said, still too caught up in his fury to care about lost first years.

"The library is on the fourth floor," Hermione pointed out. "Besides, you shouldn't be condoning…"

They carried on all the way down the corridor, with Harry sandwiched in the middle and wincing as the volume of their argument rose. Just as they reached the classroom, Harry stopped in his tracks. "She's only a first year. Why was she carrying a Runes book?" 

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

 "Maybe she thought it'd make interesting reading material," Hermione said after class as they sat down to dinner.

"You think everybody's like you," Ron scoffed. 

Ginny hurried towards them, panting like she'd run down all the way from her dormitory. She sat down hard, next to Harry.

"You won't believe this," she said, still trying to catch her breath. "Kera Ladon has moved into our dormitory."

"What?" the three of them exclaimed.

"But…but why? How?" Ron spluttered.

"I don't know. We found a new bed in the dorm when we went to put our books. All her stuff is up there."

Hermione spotted Yue Chang and waved her over.

"Did you have Potions class this afternoon? I didn't see Kera at the dungeons."

"She doesn't take classes with us," Yue replied. "Always goes off to do her own stuff. Anyway she moved into the second-year dorms about a couple of weeks after we got here."

"That would explain the Rune book," Hermione mused after Yue left. "She must have been given special permission to skip years. Although I don't understand why Kera…"

"Then perhaps you should be asking me, instead of discussing me behind my back…_Prefect _Granger."

They turned around to find Kera standing behind them, eyebrow raised.

Hermione started to defend herself, but before she could say anything, Kera stalked away to the other end of the table. Hermione was looking extremely irritated.

"Forget what I said about her," She said loudly, scooping mashed potatoes on all their plates with too much force. "You're right. She's just another of those people who think too highly of themselves." 

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Harry couldn't wait for Friday to end. After all the mountains of homework his teachers had been piling on the fifth-years, who'd be taking their O.W.L.s this year, it'd be a well-earned first Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow. But the real reason was that he had all his least favourite classes today. First lesson of the day had been Divination, where they were starting on I Ching. Harry had found it very hard to concentrate on broken and unbroken lines in the heavily perfumed classroom, and Professor Trelawney kept telling him over his shoulder that his Yin and Yang energies were very unbalanced thus a terrible catastrophe was likely to befall him soon. She was also quite happy to acknowledge her prediction of Voldemort's return now, which made Harry feel rather sick. Immediately after that was Potions with the Slytherins, which was, as usual, hell on earth. Snape wanted them to make an extremely complicated Invisibility Potion, which included ingredients that were time-consuming to prepare, like the fragile skin of the Elbisiv root, which Ron kept tearing accidentally in his haste. Snape took diabolical delight in breathing down poor Neville's neck and making him so nervous he cut himself slicing his long-legged caterpillars. After lunch they had History of Magic, which was so incredibly boring, even Hermione had stopped listening to Professor Binns, preferring to read the text herself or do her Arithmancy homework. To top it all off, after that they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Although Fleur Delacour was always nice to Harry and Ron—uncomfortably nice, in fact—most of the guys in class (including Ron), spent most of the lesson gazing at her in a blissful dreamy daze, resulting in mutinous looks on all the girls' faces throughout the lesson. There was also the unfortunate fact that Fleur's accent was sometimes possibly harder to understand than Quirrell's stutter. 

"Finally," Ron sighed as he collapsed on his bed. "Hogsmeade weekend."

"I hope Kera doesn't go though," Harry frowned as he flopped onto his bed. 

Of course that was hoping for too much. It was, after all, her first year at Hogwarts. To say Hermione and Ginny didn't like Kera Ladon very much would have been the greatest understatement of the year. The few times Hermione and Ginny had bumped into Kera over the past few weeks (which thankfully wasn't very often because she was only around during mealtimes), they had ended up with an increasingly bad impression of her. For the past few weeks, Harry and Ron had heard nothing but complaints from the two girls, and it was starting to get tiring. Harry and Ron were hoping the party and entertainment at Halloween dinner two days away would make them forget Kera for a while. Not that any of the other Gryffindors, especially the fourth- and fifth-year girls, liked Kera very much either, and there was no love lost. The only people who had anything good to say about her were Fred and George, who had spotted her taking flying lessons from Madam Hooch and claimed that she was a pretty good flyer. Harry was beginning to suspect the Sorting Hat had put Kera Ladon in the wrong house.

They had a great time the next day. As a Halloween special, Honeydukes had a new kind of chocolate with blood-red cherry syrup fillings made in the shape of tiny bats that really fluttered their wings, and made squeaky sounds in your stomach after you ate them. They had a good time jostling for space with the rest of the students, contemplating whether they dared to try a new entry at the 'Unusual Tastes' section (raw steak jelly whips) just because it was Halloween. At Zonko's Harry and Hermione nearly collapsed with laughter when Ron very nearly ran screaming out of the shop when Ginny mischievously dropped a huge enchanted fake spider on his shoulder. Still chortling and giggling at a very cross Ron, they popped into the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer. They drank quietly as they listened to a group of wizards in a corner, discussing not just missing person reports in the wizarding world, but also the unrest in the Muggle world. "They're killing each other like ants over there!" they heard one say.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Harry sighed. He had been so busy with all the homework they'd been having, he only seemed to remember Voldemort in his nightmares.

"Oh cheer up, Harry," Ginny said kindly. "He can't have gained much power yet. Professor Dumbledore will see to that."

But they went back to Hogwarts with less laughter along the way. 

They dropped Ginny off at her own room to put her purchases before continuing up to Hermione's room. Ron and Harry were discussing Quidditch in slightly half-hearted tones. When they reached the top of the staircase, they were surprised to find Crookshanks playing with an unfamiliar grey tabby. The tabby was rather pretty and had white markings on its feet like socks. It swatted Crookshanks playfully across his nose. Crookshanks yawned lazily, looking almost like he was grinning at the tabby.

"Who's your new friend, Crookshanks?" Hermione asked bending down to pet the tabby.

The tabby looked up at her with her big sea-green eyes and slipped into the fifth-year girls' dorm. Harry frowned. Those eyes were awfully familiar. Taking care not to step on Crookshanks, who was blocking up the entire passageway, Hermione walked into her dormitory and found herself face-to-face with a pair of sea-green eyes almost exactly like the tabby's.

"Hello," Kera said evenly, as if nothing had been going on between them for the past few weeks. In her arms was the grey tabby they had seen earlier.

"What are you doing in here?" Hermione scowled.

"Why not? It's mine as much as it's yours." Kera put down her cat on a fourth bed that had never been there before. There was also an ancient-looking trunk at the foot of it, with a faintly visible 'Ladon' carved in ornate letters. Hermione stared. Harry and Ron just gaped.


	3. Chapter 3: Misfiled

Chapter 3: Misfiled

The Halloween feast was fantastic as usual, with its live, flying bats and floating pumpkins. Dumbledore had even ordered a large amount of the fluttering bats from Honeydukes as a special school treat, but even that failed to improve Hermione's mood. Harry and Ron sighed as they made their way down to the dungeons. Double Potions with Snape in an especially vindictive mood was hardly the first thing they needed on a Tuesday morning right after the Halloween feast to top up Hermione's bad temper.

"Look on the bright side," Ron told Hermione. "At least she won't be joining us for lessons."

"Lucky for you two!" Hermione snapped. "_I_ will have to sleep in the same room as her every night!"

"Only for a couple of weeks or so," Harry pointed out as made their way to their usual place at the back of the class and sat down.

Snape strolled in from his office at the back. He scanned the faces of the Gryffindors and frowned. Just then, there was a knock at the door. The class craned their necks to look.

"Yes, come in, Miss Ladon," Snape said, smiling.

Harry could hear a low hissing coming from Hermione, like a boiling kettle. She looked as if she was going to explode anytime soon. But although Harry agreed that Kera was a bit arrogant, he couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her when he saw that smile on Snape's face, which could only mean one thing if it wasn't directed at a Slytherin. 

"Take a seat here, next to Mr. Malfoy," Snape told her, pointing to the desk right in front of him. Ron made a sympathetic noise despite Hermione's angry hissing beside him, earning himself a hard kick under the table. The rest of the Gryffindors watched with bated breath, wondering what horrors Snape had in store for Kera.

But Snape just went back to starting the lesson, listing ingredients on the board and announcing that they were making a revealing potion to counter last week's invisibility potion. Harry and Ron exchanged uneasy looks. Snape hadn't even taken points off from Kera. They ignored Hermione's venomous look and started discussing in hushed whispers if there was any way of warning Kera about the potential danger she was in without drawing the attention of Malfoy, who was looking absolutely repulsed at having a Gryffindor sit near him.

"Has anyone found out what is a drawback of using the skin of the Elbisiv root in the invisibility potion we did last Friday?" Snape asked the class. All of them turned to Hermione, but to their surprise, for the first time she had absolutely no idea as well.

"Not even Miss Granger?" Snape smiled his chilling half-smile reserved specially for Harry. "Perhaps Mr. Potter would like to find out for us by tasting his potion? In fact I wonder why he hasn't already tried it to see if he can get into more trouble yet go unpunished..."

Harry kept his head down, refusing to rise to the bait just yet. All Snape needed was a little excuse to relief him of his Prefect badge for Malfoy to lord over him. Besides, it wouldn't do to have Snape 'accidentally' let loose the fact that he had an invisibility cloak. 

To their surprise, Kera's hand went up.

"Yes, Miss Ladon?" Snape asked, surprised.

"The skin of the Elbisiv root releases a toxic substance when exposed to oxygen. Since this is inevitable, the potion is unsuitable for consumption and application to most living creatures," she replied quietly.

 "Saved by a _first year student, Mr. Potter." Snape sneered, and the Slytherins laughed appreciatively. Hermione looked about two nanoseconds away from blowing up._

"Five points to Gryffindor." Snape said rather reluctantly. The Slytherins stopped laughing. Even Hermione was surprised enough to stop being irritated. The Gryffindors began to speak in hushed whispers to each other all at once.

"Silence! Ten points from the lot of you for talking in class."

Snape made them work in pairs after that. Smiling nastily, he had made Harry team up with Neville so Hermione wouldn't be able to 'fix' his mistakes. Harry thought Snape seemed to be hoping for something to go wrong so he could set up Harry for detention into the next week. Initially, Malfoy complained loudly to Goyle, who was seated beside him, about having to work with Gryffindors who messed everything up, but he soon shut up. It turned out that Kera was pretty good at Potions herself. 

When they were peeling the visumera seedpods, Snape stopped at Kera and Malfoy's table.

"I was rather surprised at the Sorting Hat's decision," Snape said softly to Kera so that only they could hear, eyeing the Gryffindor crest on her robes distastefully.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Professor." She replied, without looking up. "I was rather surprised myself." She added the ingredients to the rest of the shimmering potion, which turned a pale grey. Snape nodded approvingly as she stirred the thickening potion. 

 "Look at how your classmates have managed to get their potion to such a perfect consistency!" Snape smiled indulgingly at her and Malfoy. "Miss Granger, perhaps you would do well to learn more from Miss Ladon." 

"That disgusting, stuck-up girl," Hermione muttered as she stirred her own thick grey potion furiously, her opinion of Kera bordering on hatred. "Since Snape likes her so much she should just transfer to stinking Slytherin!" 

Malfoy on the other hand seemed to have changed his mind about not speaking to Gryffindors and was trying to strike up a conversation with Kera. Stirring his own potion (which had ended up sort of pinkish-grey) Harry watched Malfoy lean over to say something to Kera. It looked like it was going to be a very long three years in Potions.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

 "I can't stand her!" Hermione exploded, her shrill voice almost echoing in Hagrid's little hut, now occupied by Charlie Weasley. It was amazing how Hermione could forget every word in the Prefects' Handbook about personal opinion of fellow students where Kera was concerned, especially after Kera had obtained full marks as well for their Ancient Runes assignment. Charlie smiled as he set down mugs of tea on the table, rolling his eyes at Ron and Harry. _Girls._

Although Charlie had also taken over the gamekeeping duties, there was a strange absence of dead fowl and hams hanging from the ceiling. Instead, it was now cluttered with other things—books, photographs and little souvenir odds and ends from Romania. There was even a vase of herbs and flowers from Ginny, who had been spending a lot of time with Charlie, chatting as she did her homework. 

"And what do the two guys really think of the new girl?" Charlie asked, grinning at the look of horror on their faces when both girls snapped around to shoot venomous looks at them, daring them to express different sentiments.

"Well…uh…she's kinda creepy," Ron admitted.

"And she's a bit…sure of herself, I suppose." Harry said uncomfortably. 

"Before you two girls strangle them for voicing such vague opinions," Charlie said, his eyes twinkling wickedly, "it's her first year here after all. It has been rather disorientating and it doesn't help that she never stays in one class long enough to make friends."

"But she has no respect for the Prefects…"

"It's no excuse, but she's fifteen too, you know. Perhaps she just didn't like following the orders of someone the same age as her."

 "She's making friends with the_ Slytherins." Ginny protested._

"So she's not acquainted with the House prejudices. I don't see why that's not a good thing." Charlie shrugged. "Besides, if all the Gryffindors are treating her like the two of you do, it's no wonder that she has decided to make other friends."

Harry felt a little guilty. Come to think of it, he and Ron had passed their judgement on her the moment they had set their eyes on her. But then, so had the rest of Gryffindor…and the rest of the school, for that matter. Harry frowned.

"There must be some reason, though." Harry said.

"Some reason for what?" Ron asked, puzzled.

"The moment we saw her, we decided she had to be a Slytherin…as if there was something about her that we could feel would make her better off in Slytherin."

"Planning a career as the next Sorting Hat?" Charlie teased. Harry noticed a strange flicker in his eyes, like he wasn't being entirely truthful with them. A glance at Ron told him he had caught it too.

"But what about Snape?" Ron asked. "He _gave_ her points."

Charlie looked suitably impressed.

"All the teachers have had to tutor her intensively for the past two months to make sure she can cope with skipping straight to fifth year, although she had private lessons before coming to Hogwarts. If she is as good at Potions as you say she is, I wouldn't be surprised if Severus took a liking to her. In fact, I found her rather endearing myself." Charlie stood up to collect their mugs. "Well, I'll have to chase you off now. I need to prepare for class."

The boys lagged behind a little as they left the hut. Once they were sure they were out of earshot, Ron turned to Harry. "Do you get the feeling he's just making a lot of excuses for her?" 

Charlie knew something about Kera Ladon that he wasn't telling.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

_The cold waves seemed to stretch forever. Storm clouds rumbled overhead, lightning threatening to strike the black stone tower in the middle of the tempest-tossed ocean. Icy spray whipped up in the already freezing wind hit at the stone walls futilely, not quite able to block out the faint moans and muffled screaming within. It looked like a place that had never seen the sun._

_A man was speaking calmly to the monstrous guards of the wizard gaol, almost entirely unaffected by them, and even perhaps relishing the hellish shrieks from within—even if they were made by his faithful followers. _

_"You will not have only this miserable lot to feed on," he said, a thin smile in his pale face, his hand gesturing to the cold stone prison. "In fact, I have brought some…gifts…for you. In exchange."_

_The tall cloaked figure motioned for two struggling figures in tattered muggle clothes to be brought forward. The hooded nightmare figures of the Dementors swarmed forward greedily, reaching out for their screaming victims…_

_His scar was on fire, but then the familiar, unpleasant cold kept coming, making him feel the rest of his body was freezing from the inside, paralysing him.__ The Dementor leant forward, its breath stinking of rotting things…_

Harry's eyes jerked open, panting like he had just run twenty times around the Quidditch field. The whole History of Magic class was looking at him, and even Professor Binns had stopped his boring lecture to peer at him through his ghostly glasses.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"No." Harry replied. "Excuse me, Professor."

He grabbed his bag and rushed out of the class, accidentally going right through Professor Binns in his haste. 

By the time he had reached Professor Dumbledore's office, the blood was rushing to his head and he could hardly breathe. The dull throbbing of his scar hadn't quite faded yet, and he absent-mindedly rubbed it as he shouted out candy names at the gargoyle.

"Chocolate bats! Cockroach Cluster! Sherbet Lemon! Um…Squiggly Gums?"

"What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?" a deceptively silky voice said behind him. "Shouldn't you be at lessons? Tsk, tsk… a Prefect, no less."

Harry turned around. As much as he hated Snape with all his being, he knew Dumbledore trusted Snape for some unfathomable reason. _We're on the same side, he tried to convince himself._

"Could you tell me the password…please?" Harry finally managed, his voice shaking a little from trying not to scream at Snape for always managing to be such a petty, self-centred prick especially at times like this.

Snape frowned, apparently thrown off by Harry's attempt at civility. 

"The Headmaster is not in."

"Do you know of any way of contacting him now?" said Harry urgently, resisting the urge to swear. Then Snape's eyes hardened, turning even blacker than they usually were. 

"What is it?" Snape asked, his voice suddenly sharp and alert. 

Harry took a deep breath, hesitating for a moment. He would have preferred to inform Dumbledore directly, but there was too much at stake.

"The Dementors have gone back to Voldemort."


	4. Chapter 4: Getting Under A Dragon’s Skin

Chapter 4: Getting under a dragon's skin

"I'm not using it." Ron said flatly, his face turning red.

Harry sighed. Ron could be so infuriatingly stubborn sometimes. 

"It's not like I'm _giving_ you my Firebolt."

"I don't want your charity." Ron said mulishly.

"Just use it during the try-outs. I won't be needing it anyway." Harry said, ignoring what Ron had just said. 

"So you're saying I don't stand a chance without your Firebolt, is that it?" Ron accused, avoiding Harry's eyes. He was being stupid, of course. He knew Harry better than that.

"Urgh…come on Hermione, help me with him, won't you?" Harry groaned, exasperated.

"We've got O.W.L.s this year you know. Think of all the time you'll have to put in for Quidditch practice, on top of all our Prefect duties." Hermione said without glancing up from her book (_Your Essential Guide To Getting As Many O.W.L.s As Humanly Possible). "I really think you shouldn't—"_

Ron exploded. "Fine, I suck at everything, happy?" He stormed out of the room, too mortified by his unreasonable outburst to face them. Harry sighed. 

"That wasn't exactly the kind of help I had in mind, Hermione." 

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The morning chill made Harry grateful for the thick jumper he had under his scarlet team robes as he jogged across the dewy field to Ron. The freckles in Ron's face stood out against his sheet-white face, his hands gripping Harry's Firebolt. From the stands, he caught Ginny waving at Ron and calling out encouragements to Ron. She had even made Hermione come along, albeit reluctantly, muttering something about insanely dangerous games and wasting time. However, something other than the musty history book in her hand had diverted her attention—Kera had joined the group of hopeful Gryffindors eager to make the team.  

"You'll be fine," Harry said, patting Ron's shoulder. "Just play like you usually do."

Harry and the twins had been drilling Ron on Chaser techniques, and Ron had managed to get past their defences pretty well, both by merit of pure skill and the additional booster of speed from the Firebolt. Besides, Ron's talent at chess had made him a rather good strategist and his attacks on the goal posts were as ruthless as his chess moves. And sometimes almost as reckless.

Angelina made her way towards them, frowning a little.

"This is Harry's, isn't it?" she said indicating the Firebolt.  

Ron gulped and nodded. Harry felt his stomach plummet down.

"I'm sorry Ron, but you have to use the broom you'll be playing with." Angelina said gently. "It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

Ron paled even more, his freckles standing out unnaturally. He had been practicing using the Firebolt for the past two weeks. _Only because you insisted, a pesky little voice in Harry's head reminded him. But Ron got up without arguing to retrieve his own broom, another hand-me-down from Charlie._

"Is it okay if I use this? I borrowed it from a friend but I've got a similar one at home." Kera said as she came up to Angelina.

She was holding a Nimbus 2001.

"Three guesses which _friend lent her that." Ron muttered, his face pale but determined as he came up behind Harry, clutching a worn-out Cleansweep Five._

"It's okay," Ron said before Harry could apologise. "I'm not going to let myself lose out to someone on a Slytherin broom."

After many impatient assurances from Ron, Harry kicked off to join the twins hovering above the pitch. Harry savoured the wondrous feeling of freedom as the wind rushed in his ears, blowing his untidy black hair into an even unrulier mess. He waved at the tiny speck below him that was his best friend and actually managed to forget Cedric for a while as he zoomed around the pitch just for the hell of it. Below him, Angelina had separated the people who had come to try out for the different positions, with Kera joining the group of hopeful Keepers. As it turned out, they had two Keepers and six Chasers, just nice for a friendly match. Harry saw Hermione's face twist into a scowl when Ron and Kera were put in the same team, together with a couple of third years he didn't know.

The moment the game started, it was clear Kera would make the team. It wasn't that the other Keeper was inadequate, but Kera had the uncanny ability of knowing where an opposing Chaser would aim the Quaffle, intercepting every shot almost lazily. But what impressed Harry most was the way she flew. Although her broom was definitely the best out of those trying out, she had perfect control of it, and her movements were swift and smooth. Watching her zoom effortlessly through the hoops or swerving to escape a bludger sent her way by the Weasley twins was like watching an otter dive in and out of the seaweeds, like it was second nature to her. Harry suspected that if she had wanted to be a Seeker, she could have given him quite a bit of competition.  

Despite having to contend with an old broom and two extremely nervous team-mates, Harry had to admit Ron was doing pretty well himself—almost every other shot he took got through the opposing team's defence. A fourth-year girl from the other team was doing quite well too, except Kera was really too good to let in any goals. But what really amazed Harry was the way the game consumed Ron and Kera, the way they managed to work together almost seamlessly despite any past differences, leading a fierce line of attack immediately after the other team had tried to score. 

Angelina began picking out the weaker players, substituting the Gryffindor team Chasers for them. Tensions rose as the more experienced players wove their way through defences with a series of onslaughts, but the new-bloods were no push-overs. When Angelina finally called a time-out an hour later, the score was a staggering 90 to 0. 

She called the team together for a quick discussion. It was an easy decision to make.

"Francis, I'm so sorry. But you're on the reserves." Angelina told the other Keeper-hopeful.

"And Kera…welcome to the team."

Ron felt his stomach do funny somersaults as Angelina approached them. He knew he had been good, but now that his feet were back on the ground he wasn't so sure anymore. After all, he'd made a couple of mistakes at the start and missed a couple of rather easy shots…

"Ron, Gayle…welcome on board."

Ron let out an excited whoop of joy as Harry slapped him hard on his back.

"Congratulations, I knew you could do it!" Ginny squealed as she rushed forward. Behind her, Hermione was just smiling, too happy to do or say anything other than to throw her arms around him. For the first time, Ron didn't turn as red as his hair and, much to Harry's surprise, hugged Hermione back. Harry grinned as his two best friends lost themselves in each other's arms.

"Sorry to break this celebration party little brother, but we've got to borrow your best friend for a while," Fred said as they came up.

"For what?" Harry asked, mystified.

"Target practice," George explained, grinning wickedly. "Gotta try out those Beaters now, haven't we?"

"So first one to put me in the hospital wing for the rest of the week gets the position?"

"The first two actually," Fred replied brightly.

"Or you could ask Kera to help," Ron suggested, all pretence of not liking the new girl gone. "Did you see the way she flew?"

At that Hermione let go of Ron and scowled.

Harry winced. _There they go again._

"_Honestly_," Hermione fumed. "Is Quidditch the only thing that matters?"

Harry sighed and hurried off with the twins, unwilling to witness another free-for-all shouting match between the two of them. He wondered how long it would take for Hermione to finally knock something into Ron's thick skull.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"So you got in?"

Kera nodded as she handed him back his broom. His Nimbus 2001. As much as he hated to admit it, it wasn't in the same league as bloody Potter's Firebolt. But it would do until he managed to convince Father to buy him something as good, or better.

"Thank you."

He had been surprised to find her rather easy to talk to, and even more surprised that she actually treated him as a friend. After he'd done some thinking however, he had of course realised why she was trying to get close to him. He was a Malfoy after all, and she was smart enough to realise what that meant even if Potter and his Weasel didn't. And that Granger. Besides, Father had said the Dark Lord was rising, and she would want to be on the stronger side, Gryffindor or not. _After all, isn't that the only reason why anyone wants to hang out with me?_ Draco thought bitterly. That and all the money he spent blindly on sweets and other treats for his "friends". Crabbe and Goyle, on the other hand, were probably just too stupid to serve any other purpose other than to tag along behind him. One of the many problems with that meant they couldn't carry out a proper conversation. He might as well have bewitched two large rocks to follow him around.

"No problem."

Why he had even bothered with Kera was another matter altogether. After all, he already had an enormous fan club consisting of almost all the Slytherin girls below sixth-year. Granted, Kera was prettier than all of them put together. And she probably had more brains than them as well since she had even managed to outshine that know-it-all mudblood Granger in Ancient Runes. But she was also a filthy Gryffindor. He didn't even know if Kera was a pure-blood for that matter. _But Professor Snape…_ Anyway he didn't know why he had even lent her his broomstick, since he hadn't even let Pansy Parkinson _touch it. But she was…different. Maybe it was the way she didn't flatter or fawn over him. Or maybe it was the way she would nail him with her pale green eyes, unblinking and unflinching, making him feel like she could see into the very core of his being. She was a bit like Granger in that way, except Granger had warm brown eyes. Well, they weren't warm when they were looking at him._

"See you in Care of Magical Creatures tomorrow then."

As he watched her leave, Draco shook himself mentally and scowled. _I was just hoping she'd wreck this lousy broom for me, so I'd get a new one, Draco convinced himself. _That and nothing more.__

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Dear Harry,

            Don't worry, me and Moony are doing well. Thanks to your warning, we got some Aurors to secure Azkaban before Voldemort could get all his Death Eaters out. We've got a whole lot of animals guarding them round the clock now like Hagrid's Blast-ended Skrewts, and we've even got a Norwegian Ridgeback here, courtesy of Charlie. The Dementors got away though. 

            Say hi to Ron and Hermione for me.

Snuffles

Harry breathed a sigh of both relief and sorrow. Since Sirius hadn't mentioned anything about the Muggles, they must have been administered the Kiss and were worse than dead now. Sirius had also totally ignored Harry's questions about any Death Eater activity and Snape's success in rejoining the ranks of the Death Eaters.

He stroked Hedwig's feathers absent-mindedly, her soft hooting echoing in the empty common room. He had written to Sirius immediately after he had his dream and she had returned with an answer in less than a day. It gave him some comfort to know Sirius and Professor Lupin were near. But if Snape hadn't known beforehand…if he wasn't trusted enough to know… Harry forced himself to take a deep breath and stop worrying for a while. _Professor Dumbledore will know what to do._ But if they didn't have any way to find out what Voldemort was getting up to…

Harry re-read the letter. _Before he could get all his Death Eaters out._ Sirius would never lie to Harry but he was also a rather over-protective godfather. If Harry knew Sirius well enough, it meant some of them had managed to escape Azkaban. And it wouldn't be some ordinary greed-driven follower either if Sirius minded telling him so much. But who…Harry went through the list of Death Eaters in his head. An exchange, Voldemort had said.

"The Lestranges." Harry said aloud to the dying embers in the fireplace. Two of Voldemort's most faithful Death Eaters were loose.

[A/N:  chapter 5 should be up in a while; it's going through some "fine tuning". Please review, I don't mind **constructive criticisms. And_ please_ tell me if any of my characters get Mary-Sue-ish, 'cause I hate Mary Sues. Thanks.]**


	5. Chapter 5: Seth, Sam and Sebastian

Chapter 5: Seth, Sam and Sebastian

"Hermione, you've got to see this!" Lavender squealed, dragging her from their dormitory to the notice board. There was already a large crowd around it.

Of course it would have to be the announcement for the Yule Ball. All the Prefects had already been informed of it on the train. Harry and Ron came up behind her, still rather sleepy. Ron saw the notice, paused, and rubbed his eyes again.

"I thought the Yule Ball was only part of the Tournament," Harry frowned, staring at the notice. 

"It is," Hermione replied. "But Dumbledore informed the Prefects it would be held again this year because he thought it was well received last year, and he's making it a yearly event."

"Oh no," Ron moaned. "You mean I have to put up with this for another three years?"

Hermione scowled.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to." She snapped. "Or you could ask Fleur again this year. Maybe she'll actually agree since you're the hero who saved her sister."

"Well, too bad Vicky isn't here this year then," Ron retorted, his face turning red. "You could haven been the centre of attention again with your Bulgarian Quidditch superstar."

"Um, Hermione, when did you hear about this?" Harry interrupted quickly.

"The Prefects' meeting, on the train." Hermione huffed.

"Maybe you could fill us in on that meeting over breakfast since we missed it?" Harry said, shooting a warning look at Ron. "Anyway we have about fifteen minutes more till class."

Hermione and Ron shot one last malevolent look at each other, and then stomped off in opposite directions up to their own dormitories. Shaking his head, Harry sighed as he followed Ron upstairs to grab his books. He was willing to bet his Firebolt that if Ron didn't get his act together and ask Hermione out this time, his two best friends would be at each other's throats forever.

_That does it._ He was doing something about it even if match-making was a stupid girly past-time only people like Lavender and Parvati did. 

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"Today, we'll be starting on a little project," Charlie said, carrying a large wooden crate in his arms. 

Hermione heard Parvati giggle and say something about strong muscular men from behind her and rolled her eyes. But at least Charlie's Magical Creatures lessons were a lot better that Hagrid's. For one, Charlie didn't have an unnatural liking for terrifying beasts. His practical knowledge and the fact that he had been the star pupil of Care of Magical Creatures during his time at Hogwarts had also helped a great deal. So far, they had covered Glumbumbles, Jobberknolls, and much to Hermione's delight, Kneazles.

"Will all the girls step out, please," Charlie said, picking up a cardboard box. "I want you to be working in pairs for this, but I don't want the usual groupings. Since we have an equal number of girls and boys, I'd like the girls to pick a boy's name out of the box." The girls lined up in front of him, with the Slytherins making their usual snide comments and complaining. But after they had drawn out their partners, pretty much the whole class looked like it was ready to start a revolt.

Hermione and Malfoy nearly got the shock of their lives when she drew his name out, and much to Ron's horror, he ended up with Pansy Parkinson. Poor Lavender and Parvati got Crabbe and Goyle, and a very miserable Neville went off to sit next to Millicent Bulstrode. Harry supposed he ought to be very thankful he had gotten Kera as a partner. Charlie ignored the looks the class was giving him cheerfully, and if Harry hadn't known better, he'd have thought Snape's sadistic sense of humour was rubbing off. 

"We're doing runespoors today," he announced, taking one of the three-headed serpents out of the crate. It was still only a juvenile, so instead of the usual vivid black and orange stripes, it was covered with a greenish, splotchy pattern.

"As you are aware, runespoors do not live long because the heads keep quarrelling with each other and will attack each other."

Harry thought that sounded incredibly like two people he knew. Fortunately they didn't have poisonous fangs to bite each other's heads off with.

"Your job is to keep your runespoor alive for the next two weeks."

Charlie taught them how to differentiate the runespoors from each other from the markings on its tail. The Slytherins didn't look too happy about that, since it meant they couldn't sneakily make a switch if theirs died. Harry stared at his runespoor, which stared expectantly back at him with all six eyes.

"Hello," the left head hissed at Harry.

"Hi," Harry replied, aware that the rest of the class was watching him converse with the runespoor. Kera was looking at him in faint surprise.

"You can speak to snakes?" 

"Um yeah."

"Neat." she said.

Harry looked at her in surprise, then guessed she probably didn't know that Parseltongue was the mark of a Dark wizard. After all, she was about the only person from the wizarding world who hadn't stared at his scar or made a big fuss upon hearing his name.

The left head now turned to Kera.

"Hello," it hissed. Harry opened his mouth to translate but Kera seemed to have guessed what it said to her. 

"Hello," Kera replied softly. For the first time, Harry realised she spoke in an accent he couldn't place. The left head hissed happily, pleased to find itself understood, while the right head hissed a snort and looked away, disgusted.

He must have been looking at her strangely, because she raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" she asked, amused. Her strange accent was gone.

Harry shook his head and looked back at their runespoor. He must have imagined it. The left head was rather enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions, but the right head kept trying to get away from them and go somewhere else. The middle one being, well, stuck in the middle, was attempting some sort of compromise by moving very slowly in the direction of the right head.

"Do you think we should give it a name?" Kera asked Harry. 

"Yeah. Okay."

"What was all that about?" the left head hissed excitedly, reminding Harry of the first time Mr. Weasley had seen a telephone.

"We're thinking of giving you a name," Kera replied. Harry blinked. The accent again. 

Then it hit him.

"You...you're a Parselmouth too?" Harry asked, making sure no one else could hear them.

"If you mean I can talk to snakes, yes." she replied, unconcerned, her attention still on the runespoor. "How about Seth, Sam and Sean?" she asked it.

"I'd prefer Sebastian, actually." The right head said haughtily.

The only other person Harry had heard speak Parseltongue was Voldemort. He tried to recall what he had sounded like, if he had spoken it with an accent as well, but it had been too long ago and the Chamber of Secrets had had too many weird acoustics anyway. Did he himself speak with a weird accent?    

"Do you mind if I keep it with me?" Kera asked, jolting Harry from his reverie. "I'm getting rather attached to Seth here," she pointed at the left head, which looked beseechingly at Harry.

"No, I'm fine with that." Harry mumbled.

He turned away and caught Charlie looking at them a little worriedly. Had he heard Kera speaking Parseltongue? Or did he already know she could and was afraid Harry would tell Ron and Hermione?

Kera was trying to coax Sebastian into some sort of conversation, oblivious of Harry's troubled expression. Luckily for her, the rest of the class was so busy trying to separate the quarrelling heads and avoid the venomous fangs at the same time, they hadn't noticed the new Parselmouth in their midst. Harry could still remember the reactions of the majority of the school when they had learnt of his ability to speak to snakes. Not that Kera would mind, since she was practically in the same situation he had been in for the most part of his second year. But now was a dangerous time to be associated with the Heir of Slytherin. And Harry didn't want Kera to have to deal with anything like that—no one should have to.

"And what is his name?" asked Sebastian, grudgingly starting to show some interest in these two alien beings who could speak in his tongue.

"Um, I'm Harry."

"Are you sssiblings?" Sam asked timidly.

"No, we're classmates." Kera said.

"What's a…'classmate'? Is it like a friend?" Seth asked.

"Yeah. We're friends." Harry told Seth.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"Ron, try to eat something." Hermione said.

"Shut up." Ron said fiercely. Even the twins had known enough to leave Ron alone about becoming a Prefect or making the team this morning before the first match of the season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Although Ron wasn't playing today (Katie had fortunately managed a full recovery), he was still a bundle of nerves. Somehow he felt more invested now that he was actually in the team.

Just then, the mail owls started streaming in with their packages and letters.

"Look at that!" Ginny said, pointing.

Five barn owls were swooping down, carrying a long thin package between them. 

"That's got to be a broomstick," Harry said, recalling the Nimbus 2000 he had received over breakfast in his first year. 

The rest of the Hall was also looking on, curious to see who the package was for.

It was dropped in front of Kera, who reached out absent-mindedly to catch it before it landed in her cereal.

"What, she's only gotten her broomstick just before the match?" Ron asked incredulously, getting more agitated by the minute. 

Kera had been using one of the old school Cleansweeps for practice, and she had been pretty good even then, so Angelina hadn't done anything more than to remind her to get her own broom soon. But Harry knew it took time to adjust to a new broom, no matter how good a flyer she was.

"Maybe it's not a Nimbus 2001, and she didn't want all of you to find out until it was too late." Hermione said scathingly.

Just then, a very distressed Angelina came up to them.

"Ron, I know this is very sudden, but could you stand in for Alicia today?"

"W-wha…WHAT?" Ron stuttered, paling. "But why?"

"She's missing," Angelina explained in a low whisper. "She's not in the dorms, she's not in the bathroom, she's not in the library…"

"You mean…something has happened to her?" Harry asked, turning around suspiciously to look at the Slytherin table. The Slytherin Chaser Montague, who had pushed Katie down the stairs just weeks ago, smirked in his direction.

"The rest of the Gryffindor boys have gone looking for her, but the game starts in an hour. You're the best alternative we have, Ron."

"Blasted Slytherins…blasted bloody Slytherins…" Ron muttered as he changed into his team robes. He had been saying that in a sort of mantra for the past hour, but none of the team was complaining. 

"Where's Kera?" Angelina said as she rushed in to the changing room.

They exchanged glances. Nobody had seen her since breakfast. 

"Not those blasted Slytherins again!" Ron exploded.

"What Slytherins?" Kera asked as she came in.

The team heaved a collective sigh of relief.

"You're late," Katie snapped. 

Kera ignored her. She bent down to tie her laces, putting her broomstick on the bench next to her—and Harry remembered the package at breakfast that had been forgotten in all the anxiety about Alicia.

"Wow." was all Ron could manage.

In her hand was a broomstick with a hand-carved ebony handle. The rest of the body was a deep mahogany, with a perfectly streamlined tail, not a twig out of place. Harry could just make out a fine stream of decorative silver flecks running down the length of the broom, and fine silver lettering at the side forming the words 'Stardust'. It looked like a sturdier version of his Firebolt, but one specially made to suit Kera's built.

"Is that a—" 

"—Firebolt X60?" the twins asked, awed.

"I don't know," Kera said, straightening up and frowning at all the sudden attention. "My godfather gave it to me." She picked up her broom.

"Is it time to go?" Harry noted that her knuckles were turning white from gripping her broom too tightly.

Angelina nodded.

"We're winning this, and to hell with the Slytherins." She said to her team, her eyes blazing with determination.

Ron turned to Harry.

"Now would be a good time to catch the Snitch really fast." Ron said, his face sheet-white as his nervousness returned in full force.

Not knowing what to say, Harry just clapped his friend on the back reassuringly. And it was time to go.

As they stepped out on the pitch, Harry heard a loud roar of cheers from the Gryffindor stands. The stands were almost half empty, since the search party for Alicia was still underway. He quickly scanned the faces of the Ravenclaw team. Cho wasn't playing today. He didn't know whether to feel relieved that he wouldn't have to face Cho just yet, or guilty that he was in some way the cause of her misery.

"And here comes Ron Weasley, the fourth Weasley to make it on the Gryffindor team!" he heard Jordan announce.

Harry kicked off from the ground at Madam Hooch's whistle, soaring all the way up above the main action to look for the tell-tale golden glitter of the Snitch. The new Ravenclaw Seeker seemed to have decided on the same strategy as Cho, and was following closely behind him.

"Ravenclaw Chaser Hillbury takes the quaffle, she's going to sco – nope, stopped by the new Gryffindor Keeper Kera Ladon, beautiful save there – Weasley, well the youngest Weasley on the field today, in possession – he swerves, passes it to Angelina – she dives to avoid a Bludger – GRYFFINDOR SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!" 

Gryffindor cheers filled the air, seemingly louder than before. Harry looked down and heaved a sigh of relief to see the stand filled. At least they'd managed to find Alicia.

"The Gryffindor Keeper is on what seems to be the new Firebolt X60, but in deep mahogany finish. Interesting. Anyway, that's arguably the best broom on the market made specially for keepers and…um, sorry Professor." Jordan said hastily, noticing the look on Professor McGonagall's face. "Right, the game. Ravenclaw in possession, closing in on the goals – ouch, that had to hurt – Gryffindor now in possession – Chaser Terry Boot of Ravenclaw grabs it from Gryffindor's Katie Bell – Bludger sent Kera's way by a Ravenclaw Beater, looks like Ravenclaw is going to score – Wow! Check out that comeback by the Gryffindor Keeper, that Firebolt X60 with its super acceleration features and zero friction design is really doing its jo—" 

"Jordan!"

"Okay, okay, Chaser Weasley in possession, heading towards the goals…"

When Ron scored his first goal, Harry gave a loud whoop and did a loop-the-loop. The Snitch, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. Harry zoomed around, half-heartedly trying to shake the other Seeker off.

But Ron was just warming up. By the time they were an hour into the game, he had worked himself up to the form he had shown during the tryouts, attacking the Ravenclaw goalposts viciously.

"Look at Chaser Ron Weasley go! He's only on a Cleansweep Five but that's not stopping him – watch out!" 

The audience gasped as Ron did a particularly sharp swerve to avoid an opposing Chaser.

"_Reckless_, that one – and he SCORES! SIXTY-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Then Harry caught sight of the flickering gold Snitch at the foot of the Gryffindor goalposts. Leaning forward, he zoomed towards the Snitch, the Ravenclaw Seeker too inexperienced and too far behind him. Twenty feet…ten feet… then the Snitch abruptly sped vertically upwards towards Kera. Harry made an almost-90-degree change in direction. His out-stretched hand closed on the cold metal of the Snitch, but he was moving too fast. It looked like they were going to have a collision. 

"Watch it, Potter!" Kera shouted as she deftly zoomed out of the way, barely missing him.

"GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

The Gryffindor supporters cheered and waved their banners madly in celebration.

"Wow! Can you believe that? We really trashed Ravenclaw!" Ron grinned as Harry landed next to him, still a little dazed from the adrenaline. 

"The both of you were great!" squealed Ginny as she rushed forward with Hermione in tow. Hermione threw her arms around Harry and Ron.

"It's bad enough that I have to worry about Harry during every match—and now I've got to worry about you as well!" Hermione said, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, come on," laughed Ron, exchanging an amused look with Harry over her head.

Kera landed somewhere a little apart from her team-mates and turned to leave.  
"Kera! Wait up!" Harry called as he pulled away from Hermione and jogged towards her. "You'll be joining the celebration party right?"

Kera looked up in surprise and shrugged.

"I suppose so."

"Good. It was a great game." Harry grinned, giving her a friendly clap on her back before turning back to join his friends. 

Kera arched an eyebrow at his retreating form.

[A/N:  chapter 6 is going to take quite a while since I've only got bits and pieces of it written and large chunks are definitely missing. Please review, I need some comments here. Although I'm not sure I've heard of a constructive flame, as long as it makes sense I don't mind. Thanks.]


	6. Chapter 6: And Her Robes Were Heart'sBlo...

Chapter 6: And Her Robes Were Heart's-Blood Red

"It's so infuriating!" Hermione seethed.

She had been trying to get Malfoy to let her have a go at looking after their runespoor, bugging him during all the lessons they had with the Slytherins. Privately, Harry thought Malfoy had finally figured out what pushed Hermione's buttons. 

They settled in their usual seats at the back of the class, Hermione eyeing the empty seat next to Malfoy that was usually occupied by Kera—Kera was accompanying Neville to the hospital wing after she had overdone her glamorie charm and turned poor Neville invisible from the knee up. It had been quite a sight to see her going up the stairs with a pair of half-legs following behind her.

"I have to talk to him," she muttered and made her way to front of the class.

Malfoy scowled when she sat down beside him. Before either could say anything, Snape entered the classroom. Hermione turned to look at Harry and Ron at the back of the class, but it was no use. She was stuck in this front seat for the rest of the class.

"We're doing theory today." 

When Snape had turned his back to write something on the board, Hermione turned to Malfoy.

"When are you going to let me have that runespoor?" she hissed.

Malfoy ignored her completely, taking notes in an elegant, cursive script.

"Malfoy—"

"Miss Granger..." Snape smiled nastily as he leant forward. "No one will begrudge you elevating your status in society by associating with Mr. Malfoy, but please refrain from doing so during my class."

Hermione turned white with indignation.

"I'm_ not_." she spat.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for your impudence."

Hermione trembled with anger but bit her tongue. She didn't say a word throughout the whole lesson, silently and furiously doing her work. When the bell rang, she threw everything into her bag in a very un-Hermione-like way and ran out of the classroom.

"'Mione!" Ron dumped his book bag on Harry and ran out after her.

She ran down the stairs into the girls' washroom on the first-floor—Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Ron looked around to make sure no one would see him go into a girls' toilet, then went in after her.

Only one of the cubicles was occupied and Myrtle was gliding round the area of the sinks.

"She's awfully upset," Myrtle told him in a hushed whisper.

Ron went up to the door of the cubicle and knocked. 

"What's wrong?" Ron asked. "'Mione, please come out."

He thought he heard some muffled crying.

"What did that bastard say to you?" Ron asked fiercely.

No answer.

"That does it, I'm hexing him into next week." Ron muttered, turning to find Snape.

"Ron!" Hermione opened the door worriedly. "I'm okay."

"What did he say?" Ron asked again, more quietly than before.

"Nothing." She lied. She turned away from him to hide the tears that were clouding her vision. Snape's words had hit a nerve in more ways than one.

_Is that why you won't ask me out? Because I'm muggle-born?_

There was an awkward silence. Ron looked around the gloomy bathroom, trying to look at anywhere but Hermione's tear-stained face. The tears had made her lashes look thicker and darker than they usually were.

_Damn she looks pretty even when she's crying._

"Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" He blurted out suddenly. He turned red, horrified. What had he just said?

She stared at him, her eyes strangely bright. For a moment she was tongue-tied as well.

"Yes." She gave him a teary smile.

Outside the bathroom, a pale blond-haired boy who had been listening at the door stormed away.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

 "Where do we go first?" Ron asked.

Harry was unable to answer for a moment, too caught up in inhaling the freezing air and enjoying the feeling of just relaxing and hanging out with his friends. Ginny was tagging along with them as usual, and Harry didn't know whether to be annoyed that he wouldn't be able to discuss anything Sirius related in her presence since she still didn't know the truth of what had happened in their third year, or relieved that she was now less shy and no longer had a tendency to drop things all over when she was around him.

"Let's go to Flourish and Blotts," Hermione suggested. 

"No bookshops today," Harry said firmly. "I've had enough of books to last my life."

The teachers had been particularly generous with homework lately, and the number of Hogsmeade visits this year had also been reduced due to Voldemort's return. He wasn't going to waste his precious Hogsmeade weekend queuing up in a musty bookshop.

"But today's the opening for their new Hogsmeade branch!" Hermione exclaimed, as if that explained everything. "Besides, Ron absolutely _has to get his own copy of '__Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them' if he wants to get past his O.W.L.s. He can't keep borrowing yours."_

They were about to protest when Ron was accosted by Fred and George.

"We've got some guy stuff to do—"

"Top secret, can't let you or Ginny tag along..." The twins told Hermione, steering a bewildered Ron away.

"Harry, what's going on?" Hermione asked, equally bewildered.

"Erm...I'll go along with them to see what they're up to." Harry said, rushing off to join them.

Once they were well away from the girls, Harry stopped pretending to look anxious and wary, and grinned widely at Ron.

"You're in on this?" Ron roared.

"It's for your own good," Harry said, laughing at the murderous expression on Ron's face.

"Gerroff me! What the—" Ron spluttered as he was dragged into Gladrags Wizardwear by his collar.

And bumped straight into Kera Ladon.

"Erm…hi," Ron managed, straightening his robes and glaring at his brothers and best friend.

"Hello." She replied, rather amused by the commotion they had been making. "Buying new robes for the Ball?"

Ron turned a dark shade of red and mumbled something unintelligible. Kera wisely pretended not to have noticed anything. She exchanged some pleasantries with the rest of the boys, and then left the shop.

"You know, I swear that girl has only three expressions—mildly amused, mildly surprised, and mildly irritated." George commented when she was out of earshot.

"And may I ask what we're doing in here anyway?" Ron asked, annoyed.

"We're going to be nice and give you an early Christmas present." Fred said.

"So we're getting our dear, sweet little baby brother some dress robes to impress a certain witch," George added.

"What witch?" Ron spluttered indignantly, starting to resemble a tomato with red hair.

"He's in denial." Fred said sorrowfully.

"You need help, Ronald," George agreed gravely.

"Advice…"

"Guidance…"

"Therapy…"

"Etiquette courses…"

"A makeover…"

"A good whack on the head." Harry finished, grinning as he dodged Ron's arm.

"But where did you get the money?" Ron asked, trying to change the subject.

"We've made a deal with Zonko's for some of our products," George explained smoothly.

"Now choose something!" Fred said. "We're not spending all day in here you know."

"Why are you being so nice?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Oh just get on with it already!" George said exasperatedly, pushing him towards the racks of cloth. "Before we change our minds!"

"What about the two of you?" 

"Nah. The ones we got last year are still fine."

"Dress robes, dear?" the witch at the counter said as she bustled over. "Any colour in mind?"

"Maroon perhaps?" Fred asked innocently.

"Or this spiffing neon-green?" George suggested. 

"**Blue**, please," Ron told the witch, shooting death-glares at the twins.

"An excellent choice!" Fred said, ignoring Ron's expression. 

"It'll go so well with your eyes," George agreed dreamily.

Harry choked.

"Any pattern in mind, or just plain blue?" the witch chuckled as she placed bolts of cloth in every possible hue of blue on the counter.

"Oh, look at that! Isn't it absolutely sweet?" George squealed as he picked up one with a girlish pattern of forget-me-nots on it and put it against Ron. 

"Or how about this one?" Fred asked mischievously, holding up one patterned with silvery spiders.

"Ah, made of acromantula silk, that one," the witch said cheerfully as Ron blanched. 

After a whole series of absolutely insane suggestions from Fred and George, Ron finally decided on a plain deep blue robe, much to the twins' disappointment. Harry sighed, realising that this was the twins' last year. What were they going to do without them and their outrageous jokes and pranks? 

A beam of rare winter sunlight reflected on the window glass caught his eye. Looking at the glint in window and the distorted reflections of his friends, he was suddenly over-come with a dizzy sensation…and then he was no longer in Gladrags Wizardwear.

_An army made up of a menagerie of fearsome beasts and monsters standing in the mi__st, a few large creatures which seemed to be made of pure fire…a small circle of black-cloaked figures with masks on their faces, bowing before a hideously elaborate throne carved with twisting serpents, with real, life and incredibly huge snakes coiling at it's feet…and a trembling prisoner thrown down, in front of the monster in the throne, a tall, thin man with a weak chin whose bedraggled hair and untrimmed goatee might have been white if it wasn't covered with dirt and grime…_

"Harry? Harry?"

Harry snapped out of his daze and looked around in shock. He was back in Hogsmeade, and the witch who had been fitting Ron's robes was putting on the finishing touches. There was barely a twinge in his scar, unlike previous occasions when he had ended up rolling on the floor in agony, but he wasn't complaining about that one.

"Was it another…?" Ron stopped, realising that the witch fitting him had paused to listen.

"No, I just…dozed off. It's nothing."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"You said were looking at a reflection?" Hermione asked, frowning as she pored over a musty book.

"Yeah. And it didn't feel as if it was happening now…it had a sort of distant feeling to it, like it was something happening in the future, or in the past. "

"That's a form of divination," she informed him. "It's called scrying."

"Trelawney's going to love you." Ron grinned.

"Have you told Dumbledore?" She took down another book from the shelf, quickly flipping through it.

"No." Harry replied. "I can't guess the password and all the other Professors are at Hogsmeade except Snape."

Hermione looked up from her book frowning.

"Now is not the time to—"

"_I_ know that," Harry said exasperatedly, earning a glare from Madam Pince. "But try telling that to Snape."

"He ignored us completely," Ron agreed. 

"Couldn't you try convincing him?"

"And get stuck in detention sorting potion ingredients all Christmas? That greasy git gave Harry detention the last time for looking for Dumbledore during Professor Binns's class before taking his own time getting help, remember?" 

"But this is important, it's about Karkaroff." Hermione protested. 

"It was important too the last time, it was about two human beings getting their souls sucked out." Harry said fiercely. Hermione and Ron winced.

"Sorry." Harry muttered.

"'s okay." Ron mumbled, awkwardly patting Harry on the shoulder. Hermione turned away and pulled another book off the shelf.

"Is this the monster you were talking about?" Hermione said, pointing to picture of a fiery beast.

"That's the one," Harry agreed, leaning forward to read the caption. "A Balrog? I thought those were only found in Tolkien." 

"Where's Tolkien?" Ron asked, puzzled.

"Not _where_, Ron" Hermione said, sighing. "He's a muggle author."

She flipped a few pages.

"They're thought to be extinct," she told them. 

"Great, so he's bring back creatures from the dead as well," Ron muttered as Hermione dumped a few more books into his arms and walked quickly to the other end of the library.

"Hermione, what are you looking for?" Harry asked, noticing titles like '_The Diviners' Guide To Prophecy' and '__Seers—Curse Or Gift' on the shelves._

"I'm trying to find out why you had that vision."

"Dumbledore said my scar gave me some links to Voldemort." Harry said.

"But it didn't hurt this time, did it? Besides, it still doesn't explain how you managed to scry for it without even trying." Hermione pointed out.

"Perhaps Harry's getting in tune to his Inner Eye," Ron sniggered from behind the huge stack of books in his arms.

"Hermione, you're reading too much into it," Harry said, smacking Ron on the back of his head and causing him to drop a couple of the books he was holding. "Let's go try Dumbledore's office again."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The girls were taking a long time getting ready. Harry fiddled absent-mindedly with his collar, while Ron paced behind him nervously, practically strangling the flowers he had bought for Hermione. Ron had convinced Harry to ask Ginny this time and Harry had just gone along with it. He didn't feel up to dealing with Cho just yet.

"I think that's them," Harry said when he heard some laughter from up the girls' dorms and a door closing shut.

"'bout time," Ron muttered. He turned to face the staircase and gawped.

Harry could hardly recognise Hermione and Ginny. Ginny was wearing the same white robes she had worn last year, but she had grown enough over the past year to fit them better. Her fiery hair, usually tied back into a simple pony tail, had been piled up upon her head in a slightly haphazard but attractive way and ornamented with pearly white clips. Hermione had apparently decided to use Sleekeazy's Hair Potion again this year, but her normally brown hair now had an interesting reddish tinge to it, as if she had used henna wash on it. Her robes this year were made of pale lavender satin with some sort of delicate embroidery at the hems. Both girls had used some pale pinkish makeup and were looking very pretty indeed.

"Did you wait long?" Ginny asked Harry shyly.

"No. You look good," Harry complemented her, causing her to blush to the roots of her hair.

Ron handed Hermione the now slightly limp flowers.

"You look…nice." Ron said lamely.

Hermione smiled and slipped her hand into the crook of his arm.

"Let's go, or we'll be late."  
  


As they made their way down to the Great Hall, Ron's face twisted into a scowl.

Malfoy was standing at the top of the staircase. His midnight-blue velvet robes still had that ridiculous high collar he had worn last year, but this time, Harry was close enough to notice some sort of elaborate crest was stamped on the silver clasps which he realised had to be the Malfoy family crest.

"What are you doing here?" Ron snarled.

"I see you're not wearing that lacy maroon thing this year," Malfoy sneered. "Did Mudblood here decide you'd be a disgrace to her and buy you new robes?"

Before Ron could retort, Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls came giggling towards them.

"Draco, I've been looking all over for you," she gushed as she put her hand on his arm.

"And why would you be doing that?" Malfoy said, shaking her hand off and eyeing her over-the-top fuscia pink robes in open disgust. 

"I can't just walk into the Great Hall without my handsome date, can I?" she said while trying to affect a kittenish pout. It was a big mistake, considering she had a pug-nose and a face that was just about as cute as a Blast-ended Skrewt.

That, plus the look of utter repulse on Malfoy's face was more than the four Gryffindors could take. Ron had stopped short of rolling on the floor with laughter, and even the girls had given up trying to hide their smirks. Malfoy was not amused.

"Did I even _ask_ you?" Malfoy sneered cruelly.

Ignoring Malfoy's insulting tone, Pansy glared at the Gryffindors and tried to steer him away from them, but Malfoy forced open her grip on him roughly and pushed her away. Harry frowned. He might not like Pansy very much and quite frankly he could understand why Malfoy was trying so hard to disassociate himself from her, but this was going a bit too far. He stepped between Malfoy and Pansy.

"Mind your own busi—" Malfoy stopped abruptly, riveted by the sight of something behind Harry.

Kera was coming down the stairs behind them.

She was wearing a flowing robe made of silk in a dark heart's-blood red, with fine silver strands woven in a simple design on the sleeves and helm. Her hair still fell down freely in dark waves, unornamented. Her usual plain black wristbands had been replaced by deep red silk ones with the same silver pattern. While Hermione and Ginny had used paler makeup, Kera had chosen to paint her lips in deep glowing red, adding colour to her usual parlour. 

But her attractiveness had a darkness about it, making Harry as wary as he was admiring. Something Malfoy could appreciate, if his father's choice of wife was anything to go by.

Regaining his composure, Malfoy smirked at Harry and pushed him aside, offering Kera his arm. 

Quite a few people turned to look at the unusual Slytherin-Gryffindor pairing when they entered the Hall. Draco smiled smugly at all the attention they were getting. Perfect. He knew he'd picked the right partner. What better way to upstage Potter and find out the Gryffindor team strategies at the same time? Provided he'd be able to charm them out of her, of course. 

The Gryffindor group entered behind him. 

_She looks beautiful tonight._ Draco ignored the voice in his head. _Of course, you think she looks beautiful everyday anyway, don't you? The voice smirked. He pointedly turned his back on the Gryffindors, concentrating on leading his date to their table. __Little scheme to hog the runespoor to get her to go with you didn't work out? The voice in his head taunted him._

Her hair was no longer the unruly mess she bore with day after day, done up in a tasteful french twist. He watched her laugh and joke with the rest of the Gryffindors. She'd done something to her teeth, he realised. Probably something to do with that curse he shot at Potter the year before that had rebounded onto her. Realising that he was staring, Draco quickly looked away, forcing himself to pay attention to his date.

Of course Kera was pretty in her own right. In a dark sort of way perhaps. He tried to focus on making some sort of conversation with her. Remembering his original purpose, he tried talking about Quidditch. Quidditch was a safe topic, and it would distract him. 

"Where did you learn to fly like that?" he asked. "I heard you didn't even need to get used to a new broom during your previous match."

"I had a good teacher." Kera replied. "And besides, it's not like I haven't been flying on that broom all summer."

She took a sip of water, moistening her lips a little. He had kissed other girls. He had even kissed Pansy Parkinson last year, if only because she was his date and he had a reputation to uphold—the suave, rich boy, who was perhaps a bit of a heartbreaker. But those were more of...inevitabilities. Damn it, he didn't want to kiss Kera. He wanted to kiss _Granger._

There seemed to be a commotion coming from the dance floor. Draco turned and froze.

Weasley was kissing Granger.

_No…not now, not this way._ Draco closed his eyes and tried to get the whirlpool of emotions under control. Kera was watching the pair with some interest and Potter and the rest of the Weasels were grinning like idiots. From across the hall he heard someone wolf-whistle. Getting up with as much Malfoy dignity he could muster, he left the Hall, pulling a bemused Kera behind him.

Harry noticed Malfoy from across the room looking like he was about to have a haemorrhage, and then hurry out of the hall with Kera. For once, Draco had abandoned his two half-witted body guards Crabbe and Goyle. They sat by themselves, staring blankly into space. _How fitting to see them in grey,_ mused Harry. _Now they really look like a couple of boulders. He grinned at the sight of a very embarrassed Ron trying to shush the twins and reached for his goblet of water. Harry's head began to swim as he looked at the candlelight flickering on the goblet…_an army of monsters led by a human monster.__

"Do you want to dance?" Ginny asked him timidly.

Harry snapped out of it and shook himself.

"Yeah, okay."

The only thing left to do when you found out your team-mate spoke Parseltongue, was dating your arch nemesis, and a great war was about to ensue. Dance with your best friend's baby sister. Of course.

[A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry Tolkien copyright holders and fans—I couldn't resist it. =) And excuse the title of this chapter, the phrase got stuck in my head when I began writing this fic. Don't get used to long chapters; I doubt I'll be writing such long ones frequently. And Chapter 7 is a no where _near_ completion, so don't hold your breath.

**_line_Granger**: I hoped I explained that Prefects thing well enough, but apparently not so. Okay, I'll see what I can do about that in later chapters. =) And about Figgs…let's just say I have something else in mind for her.

**T'MaIA**: *frowns in confusion* I always thought a Greek chorus' main function was to cryptically echoed key themes and provide time for the main actors' transitions between scenes? Never mind. What is this PPC? Yes, I was rather worried that she'd be too Mary-Sue-ish for her own good for the first few chapters. And now I've made her wear a_ gorgeous_ dress to the Yule Ball. *groans* She's prancing off to Mary-Sue land against my will. *glares at traitorous self* The reason why I originally planned on letting her have more space is because she's a new character and needs some introduction. I'll get back to the story and the rest of the characters, don't worry (or so I keep telling myself) there's a lot of space left to do that. I mean, you know, hence the word 'Trilogy'.

**Chris**: Point taken about Kera being too outstandingly pretty. I initially intended for it to be a comparison between her and the Slytherin girls (Bulstrode, Parkinson) who aren't exactly a sight for sore eyes. As aforementioned, it all went _way out of hand in this chapter, as you can see. *cringe*]_


	7. Chapter 7: The Lion With The Serpent's T...

Chapter 7: The Lion With The Serpent's Tongue

The Slytherin boys stumbled back to their Common Room at about 2 o'clock the next morning, tired and possibly a little drunk. The girls had gone off to bed long ago, with the exception of Pansy Parkinson, who had not been seen since lunch. 

"Typical of a Weasley," Thomas Nott was saying. "The whole clan have a reputation of mixing with mudbloods."

"I don't think they should even be considered pure-bloods anymore," Montague agreed. "My father said they've got a squib somewhere in the family."

"Did you see one of the twins with that mudblood Chaser?"

"And to think they made _her_ the Gryffindor Captain."

Crabbe and Goyle stared dumbly, watching the conversation as one would watch a tennis match, since both had neither opinions of their own nor Malfoy to agree to. 

They were just about to head off to bed when they noticed a coppery stink coming from the long-dead embers of the fireplace of the Slytherin Common Room.

"Oh yuck, look at this," Blaise Zabini said, staring at the bloody mess in the cooling fireplace. "Some sick person gutted one of the runespoors."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Harry sat up with a jolt in bed. His dorm-mates were still sleeping peacefully. Good. It seemed like he was finally learning not to scream out loud or everyone had just been too tired from the Ball. He checked the wrist watch Hermione had given him on his birthday and groaned inwardly when he realised he had slept for barely an hour. This was getting ridiculous. He flopped back down and tried to get back to sleep, but after a lot of tossing and turning and fiddling with his covers, he gave up. His adrenaline was still rushing from the nightmare, and there was nothing he could do about it. He quietly got dressed and took out his invisibility cloak, his hand hesitating as he reached for the Marauders' Map. He'd gotten it back at the end of last year when Dumbledore had been going through the possessions of the fake Mad-Eyed Moody. With a sigh, he decided not to bring it. It brought back too many unpleasant memories. 

He sneaked out of Gryffindor Tower, hoping he wouldn't bump into Filch or Mrs Norris. He could lie that he was doing Prefect duty, but McGonagall would probably have his head if she found out. The winter wind seemed to have seeped through the stones of the castle walls, stretching icy fingers to grab at him. He drew the invisibility cloak closer to him, thankful that it was rather heavy. Harry made his way up to the Astronomy Tower. The wind was stronger and colder up here. Looking over the dark, menacing depths of the Forbidden Forest, he gave an involuntary shiver. What was happening now outside the save haven Hogwarts provided? He hadn't heard from Sirius and Lupin for a long time.

He sighed and slumped down on the cold stone. It wouldn't do anybody any good to sit and wallow in his own despair, but it seemed to be all he was capable of at the moment. Leaning his head back, the stars burst on his upturned face like ocean spray. His grade-school teacher had once told them a beautiful story that when someone died, their souls would rise to the heavens and turn into a star, looking out for their loved ones. _I didn't want you to die for me, Harry thought miserably, closing his eyes._

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Harry woke up around lunch time on Boxing Day, curling up in his sheets and contemplating not getting up at all that day until his stomach protested loudly from the lack of food. He shrugged into a jumper from Mrs. Weasley, this year in emerald green as usual but with a huge 'H' on it. It had made him feel like he actually had a family until the increasingly annoying voice in his head reminded him that he was Harry Potter, not Harry Weasley. He made his way down to the Great Hall feeling very gloomy indeed, hoping his two best friends wouldn't notice anything amiss.

He sat down to pick at his toast and rearrange the food on his plate, not really paying attention to the conversation at the table.

"It's silly," Hermione muttered. "Especially at times like these."

"Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her if he thought she wasn't qualified," Ron protested, conveniently forgetting all the remarks about the state of Dumbledore's sanity he'd made when Gilderoy Lockhart had been appointed to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts in their second year.

"You just like her because she's pretty." Hermione huffed.

"And you're just jealous," Ron proclaimed triumphantly.

Harry groaned and felt like smacking his head on the table. They were _still_ squabbling. 

"So much for getting them together so that we'd all have some peace and quiet," Fred said wryly.

Harry felt a small pang. Maybe he _had wanted them to notice after all._

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Usually a good snowball fight like the one they'd had that afternoon would have left him pleasantly exhausted and quite happy to drop off into a relatively dreamless sleep, but tonight there was an incessant gnawing that refused to go away. 

It was kind of peaceful, wandering the darkened corridors of Hogwarts alone in his invisibility cloak. No books to sneak out of the Restricted Section, no adventures into the Forbidden Forest and no death-defying potions-ingredient-stealing missions. And no Ron or Hermione to squeeze under the cloak with him, treading on each others' feet and frantically trying to make as little noise as possible to avoid getting caught.

He'd been avoiding them the whole day—teaming up with the twins instead of Ron in the snowball fight, eating his meals with Ginny, going off to bed early so they would have the Common Room to themselves. And it hurt a bit to realise that they were so lost in each other, they probably hadn't noticed his efforts anyway. 

Remembering that he'd planned on going off on his Firebolt early the next morning, Harry moved quietly down towards Gryffindor Tower. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw someone turn a corner. His heart seemed to skip a beat and he cursed himself for not bringing the Marauder's Map along. Crossing his fingers and hoping he'd be able to sneak past whoever it was, he moved stealthily round the corner. Wait a minute...was that Kera? Despite the lack of light and the fact that most of the Hogwarts corridors still looked the same to him after five years, Harry was quite sure that she had been coming from a section of the castle he'd never been in before. Harry considered exploring for a moment, then decided to leave her to her privacy. Anyway it looked close to the direction of the dungeons and Slytherin Common Rooms, and he really didn't need to know what his classmates were getting up to in dark corridors in the middle of the night. He waited in the shadows till he was sure she had gone up to her dormitory before going into the portrait-hole himself.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"We're going to kick Malfoy's ass today." Ron said as they stepped into the Great Hall for breakfast.

Ron wasn't playing today despite protests from Alicia that he was really a better player than her. The rest of Gryffindor had already volunteered for "guard duty" like in third year and hopefully they would be able to avoid having one of their team-mates kidnapped or injured again today. 

As they walked past the Ravenclaw table, they bumped into Cho, who was just rising to leave.

"Good luck Harry." Cho said, smiling faintly.

Harry felt a lump in his throat. It was the first time she had spoken to him since the end of last year.

"Thanks."

Ron shot a look at Harry but didn't say anything until they got to their own table.

"Do you still like her?"

"…I don't know." Harry mumbled, pretending to be engrossed with buttering his toast.

_I don't know anything anymore. _

It was a clear day, slightly breezy but not too cold, perfect conditions for playing Quidditch. Ron had chosen to sit nearest to the stairs leading down to the field, with Hermione. Ginny and Gayle had become fast friends and were sitting somewhat higher up.

Malfoy had been made Slytherin captain this year, and he wasn't too happy when Madam Hooch ordered the team captains to shake hands. Before he took off, he sneered at Angelina and made a great show of wiping his hand on his robes, making most of the team, especially Fred, see red. 

"I can't wait to wipe that smirk off his face with a bludger," Fred muttered as they all took off.

True to his word, the twins smacked a bludger with the Dopplebeater Defence at Malfoy at the first chance they got, forcing him to swerve crazily all over stadium as it raced after him at twice the speed and twice the force. It also bought Harry some time to look for the Snitch unobstructed.

"Angelina dives and drops the quaffle – Slytherin in possession, the Gryffindor Keeper closing in…"

Kera stopped, frowning as if confused. The quaffle went through the hoop.

The Gryffindors stared at her and exchanged bewildered looks as the Slytherins cheered and jeered. It was the first time she'd ever let a goal in.

"SLYTHERIN SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO SLYTHERIN!"

Malfoy sniggered as he stopped to hover near Harry.

"Looks like we've got the upper hand now, Scarhead."

When this happened a few more times, Angelina signalled for a time out and Ron rushed onto the field.

"What are you playing at?" Ron shouted at Kera as they landed. "Snogging with Malfoy clouding up your brain?"

"Someone's cast a spell of some sort on me or the quaffle." She said, ignoring Ron. "Every time it gets close my vision blurs and I lose concentration."

"How convenient." Alicia muttered.

"If you're trying to say something, then say it." Kera said coldly, turning to face the much taller girl.

Angelina stepped between them. 

"Now's not the time to quarrel." She turned to Kera "The quaffle can't have been tampered with. It was in Madam Hooch's office the whole time, and it's checked before every match."

Kera frowned and started checking her robes, ignoring the looks that Ron and Alicia were giving her that clearly said they thought she was just putting on an act. Suddenly, something clicked in Harry's brain.

"Your broom. I saw you lend it to Malfoy the morning after Boxing Day."

"But we've had Quidditch practices after that." Katie pointed out.

"Maybe there's some sort of delayed timing on the spell or he can control it."

"What, like a remote-controlled spell?" Alicia asked incredulously as Angelina and Fred checked Kera's broom. Angelina hissed in disgust and pulled out something that had been entangled in the twigs of Kera's Stardust. 

"It's a Confundus charm." She said, holding up a small rectangular object barely the size of an eraser. It was made of some sort of mineral and carved with runic squiggles. "It's probably been rigged with some sort of mind link."

"And just what was he trying to achieve with a stupid stunt like this?" Ron fumed, his anger now directed at the blond head across the pitch. 

"He's trying to cause tension among us." Fred said. 

"And he nearly succeeded."

Shamefaced, Ron and Alicia apologised to Kera. She nodded curtly.

"Let's resume the game."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"I'm going to kill Malfoy." 

"Do that and Kera will kill _you." Harry told Ron as they left the changing room. They'd won the game hundred-eighty-to-fifty._

"You don't seriously think she's going to continue snogging that git after what he did to her."

"No, I meant she's going to kill you for killing him before she gets to him." 

"If only she were as good at Transfiguration as she is in Potions," Ron grinned. "We might get to see him turned into a ferret again."

"Maybe if we're in luck she'll poison him instead."

When they passed by one of the empty Transfiguration classrooms now used mainly for storage purposes, they heard two familiar voices quarrelling. 

"I thought we were friends." Kera said, her pale eyes flashing.

"Who wants to be friends with a filthy Gryffindor?" Draco sneered, inwardly feeling a bit of a pang. She had called him a friend. _Oh well, he thought. __You have to make some sacrifices in war._

"Is it really that important to you?"

"Of course. The only reason why we even have to put up with classes with you is probably some foolish whim of Dumbledore's."

"Not that. Winning."

He paused.

"Yes."

Kera threw something in his face and swept out of the room—the charm he'd gotten from Father for Christmas. It hit him squarely between his eyebrows and bounced off. _Great._ Now if I'm lucky I'll get a stupid scar like Potter_. Furiously rubbing the bruise that was already starting to form, he bent down and tried to pick it up from the floor, and frowned when he realised it had broken in two.   _

[A/N: Ugh, this chapter was quite badly written in my opinion. The words and ideas took a painfully long time to materialise, which resulted in a few clichéd lines. Seven is not my lucky number.

The Dopplebeater Defence, for those who haven't read _Quidditch Through The Ages, is a move where both beaters hit the same bludger at the same time._

Does anybody else wonder why JKR put the Yule Ball on Christmas? 'Cause Yule is on the 21st of December according to the pagan calendar, not the 25th.]


	8. Chapter 8: To Sleep, Perchance To Dream

Chapter 8: To Sleep, Perchance To Dream

Harry gulped for air as he ran at full speed down to the dungeons, his shoes making loud echoing clacking noises on the stone floor. Sirius had written to him a couple of weeks before, and he was supposed to meet him and Remus this weekend during their last Hogsmeade trip of the year, so he was trying very hard not to get himself stuck in detention. A quick glance at his watch told him he had less than a minute to avoid Snape's wrath. With a last frantic burst of speed, he practically skidded into the classroom, huffing like the Hogwarts Express and knowing that his hair and uniform were probably in an even greater mess than usual.

"I'm honoured that you decided to favour us with the grace of your presence after all, Mr. Potter. We would have been sorely disappointed if you had chosen not to."

Still struggling to catch his breath, Harry ignored Snape's mocking tone and mumbled his excuses before making his way to a seat next to Ron behind. Kera, he noticed, was still sitting next to Malfoy, but with such unnatural stiffness that it was obvious both would much rather be somewhere else.

"We'll be doing a pain-relief potion today. It's a simple enough potion and even a bumbling idiot should be able to get it right." Snape smiled nastily. "Although considering the fortune Mr. Longbottom has already made for the cauldron industry, I am quite certain that he's about to astound us all once again."

"What did Trelawney want?" Ron asked in an undertone as he grinded up his queen of the meadow.

"The usual…death, mayhem, and the end of the world." Harry tried to chop his willow bark quickly and added it into his dangerously over-boiling potion. 

Suddenly, a resounding boom interrupted their conversation. Strangely enough, it came from the front of the classroom, not the back where Neville was seated. Kera's cauldron was still hissing, but luckily the potion hadn't landed on anyone and was just giving off a truly putrid smell. Kera's expression was unreadable.

"Malfoy." Ron said. "Had to be him."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for getting something as simple as this wrong. Stay behind after class, Miss Ladon."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

It was a beautiful May day. The bright blue skies had barely a hint of clouds, and a cool breeze soothed their sun-warmed skin.

"Did they say where they were meeting us?"

Harry shook his head.

"Probably the same place as last time then," Hermione reasoned.

"But how are we going to get past them?" Ron asked, gesturing to the sixth-year and seventh-year Prefects who were stationed around the perimeters of Hogsmeade.

Then, outside Dervish and Banges, they spotted a mild-looking wizard dressed in shabby robes, with a large shaggy black dog by his side.

"Professor Lupin!" Hermione waved.

"Call me Remus, please." He said, his tired grey eyes twinkling. "Do you happen to know who owns this mutt? It's been following me around all day."

Sirius the dog narrowed his eyes and growled, making Harry grin.

"Hello, Snuffles," Harry said, petting him on the head.

"His name is _Snuffles_?" Remus grinned. "How sweet."

Sirius gave Remus a look that said in no uncertain terms that he was going to pay for all the teasing later, then sniffed Harry's bag and barked impatiently.

"Honestly, if it isn't about Harry it's about your stomach." Remus said, before leading them towards the edge of the village.

The four Hufflepuff Prefects were quite surprised to see their former professor again, but let them through after reminding the Gryffindor trio that they were to be back in Hogwarts before sundown. They climbed over the stile and followed Remus and Sirius towards the end of the path, but instead of climbing up the mountain, Remus simply led them over the boulders to the other side.

"We've rented a little cottage here," Remus explained, leading them beyond the rocky foot of the mountain. 

What Remus had called a cottage was really more of a hovel. It was a rickety wooden thing, not unlike the Shrieking Shack, run-down and with gaping holes in the roof. All but one of the windows were broken, and the door looked like it wasn't going to stay on its hinges much longer either. It was isolated from all the other cottages, and behind it was a gloomy looking forest, which turned out to be the other end of the Forbidden Forest bordering the school grounds.

Once they were all inside, Sirius transformed back to his human form and made straight for Harry's bag, which was loaded with food he had gotten from the kitchens.

"I'm going to wring your neck…after I've eaten," Sirius told Remus as he unpacked the small mountain of food. 

"In front of your godson?" Remus said in mock horror.

"Alright, after Harry goes back."

"Where's Buckbeak?" Hermione asked.

"He's with the Aurors guarding Azkaban." Sirius explained while he chewed on a drumstick.

He was wearing what looked like one of Remus's robes which didn't quite fit him, and his hair was short and clean once more, although a little untidy. The haunted look Sirius had when he had just gotten out of Azkaban was almost gone now, but he seemed to have lost all weight he'd gained after his escape.

"What have you been up to?" Harry asked.

"Running around, gathering people," Remus said vaguely.

"Looks like you haven't eaten a proper meal in days."

"Of course I haven't," Sirius said, still wolfing down his food. "Not when Remus is cooking."

"Hey!" Remus protested, smiling.

They carried on in this vein for sometime, and Harry was pleased to see that both of them were in good spirits. 

"Anything interesting happening up at school?" Sirius asked, trying not to seem overly worried and failing rather miserably.

"Quidditch Finals next week," Ron replied promptly, causing Hermione to roll her eyes.

Remus smiled, and Sirius couldn't help breaking into a grin.

"What are the chances of Gryffindor getting the Cup this year?"

"Pretty good. We've won every match so far."

"Looks like Harry's doing a good job then." Remus said smiling.

"We've got a new Keeper this year. She's pretty good." Harry said modestly.

"Who?" Remus asked, interested. 

"You haven't met her, she's a transfer student. Kera Ladon."

"Ladon, you say?" Sirius said, frowning. "There used to be a Slytherin a couple of years before us with that name. Kept to himself pretty much, didn't even talk to the rest of the Slytherins. Even Lucius Malfoy wasn't good enough to be in his company. I think he married a Slytherin from our year, one of Lily's friends."

"My mother's friend?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Your mother didn't mind some of them. Hell, she even made friends with that slimy grease-ball Snape! But that girl was okay—for a Slytherin, anyway."

"What about you, Harry?" Remus asked. "How have you been doing?"

"I'm okay," Harry lied.

"No more nightmares?"

Harry shook his head. It was true, to some extent. It was hard to have nightmares if he didn't sleep in the first place.

"He had a vision," Hermione interrupted, proceeding to tell them about the vision Harry had seen at Christmas.

"But there's been no evidence so far to prove that what I saw was real." Harry protested, slightly annoyed that Hermione had told them about it when he has been trying so hard not to have them worried. So many months had passed with nothing happening that Harry had begun to feel a little foolish, wondering if it had all just been a product of his imagination.

"But—" Hermione began, and right on cue, Harry felt an excruciating pain flash across his scar.

_"No…please, have mercy on me, My Lord."_

_"And why should I show mercy to a worthless traitor like you?" A cold sibilant voice said from the darkness of the throne._

_"I have in-information for you!"_

_"Pray tell," Voldemort hissed with a humourless smile._

_"I could tell you how to get past the wards around Hogwarts!"_

_"I don't need you for that. It is only too easy."_

_"Indeed? Dumbledore is no match for your greatness, My Lord—"_

_"Flattery will get you no where, Igor."_

_"Severus Snape! He's a spy for Dumbledore!" The man on the floor said desperately._

_"Such a pity.__ He's a talented man." Voldemort said. "But that I already know. What else do you have for me?"_

_The man on the floor whimpered._

_"Now, I believe my faithful Death Eaters have a present for you. To welcome you back in our midst."_

_A circle of black-cloaked figures closed in with their wands aimed on the helpless man._

_"Crucio."__ They said in one voice._

_A blood-curdling scream rang out into the foggy darkness._

"Harry!" Sirius said worriedly. He had never actually seen his godson have a vision, and it was frightening and frustrating to see him rolling about in agony and not being able to do anything about it.

"Kar...Karkaroff." Harry managed, still feeling like someone had whacked him on his scar with a pickaxe. "They…cruciatus…"

"You've got to rest now." Remus said firmly. Together with Sirius he managed to carry Harry to one of the lumpy beds in the next room. 

"No, I have to go back…Hogwarts…" Harry muttered, fighting to stay conscious. "…warn Snape…"

Sirius growled in annoyance when Harry tried to push him away and get out of bed.

"It's no use Sirius, he's as hopeless as James."

"Fine. Let's get him to Albus quickly."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"What is it you want, Malfoy?"

_Oh, so it's 'Malfoy' now, is it?_ He thought bitterly.

"You blew up your cauldron on purpose yesterday. The potion didn't require lacewings." 

"Congratulations. You know your pain-relief potions." Kera turned to leave.

Draco grabbed her by the wrist.

"You told Professor Snape about the charm, didn't you?"

"If I had wanted to, I wouldn't have waited two months to do it."

"It'd have gotten me off the team."

"Winning isn't everything."

"So you say. Why do you even bother playing, then?"

She shook off his hand. 

"I never said I didn't want to win."

He thought of calling for her to wait, but he bit his tongue. What was he going to do? Apologise? Malfoys never apologise—Father had drummed that in from a young age. To apologise was to admit failure, to admit that something that never should have happened had occurred. What would Father say if he heard that he'd actually apologised…to a Gryffindor? Draco scowled and turned round a corridor to go back to the Common Room and sulk when he heard someone call out to Kera. A voice that he recognised belonged to Pansy.

"Go away, Parkinson."

"What's the matter? Too proud to fight?"

Kera eyed Pansy warily.

"What do you want?"

"You thought you'd humiliate me by playing about with Draco, didn't you?"

_Why, Pansy, I didn't know you cared._

"Why are we even _having_ this conversation?" Kera muttered, pushing Pansy out of the way and stalking off.

"Oh no, you don't." Pansy pointed her wand at Kera's retreating form.

_What in the name of Salazar does she think she's doing?_ Draco cursed, getting out his own wand.

"_Stupefy_!"

Pansy collapsed into a limp bundle on the floor. Kera turned around in surprise.

"Haven't you learnt never to turn your back on an opponent?" Draco fumed.

"You didn't have to help me."

"That much is obvious."

She paused.

"Thank you."

"What? No ranting about me arranging all this?" He asked sarcastically.

To his surprise, Kera quirked her mouth into a slight smile.

"No. And nothing to throw at you either."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"Oh joy," Ron muttered as they trudged their way up to the North Tower. "It's classes with the human Augurey again."

They made their way up the ladder to find large bowls of water had been placed on every table. Trelawney was busy adding drops of some sort of oil into each bowl. The oil swirled and made strange multi-coloured patterns on the surface of the water.

"We are starting on scrying today," Trelawney told them dreamily when they were all seated.

Harry felt his heart skip a beat.

"You okay?" Ron whispered in concern.

"Yeah." _And stop treating me like I'm made of glass!_

"The cards have informed me that scrying is a skill you must learn if you are to avoid disaster at the end of this year." Trelawney said in her misty tone.

"A sickle says this is coming up for our O.W.L.s." Ron muttered. 

Trelawney spent a good half an hour urging them to "clear their minds". Seamus had discreetly opened one of the windows and was now drifting off to a deep sleep in his squishy armchair. Ron was valiantly trying to make some jokes to lighten up Harry's mood, but neither seemed to find anything particularly funny. The memory of Karkaroff was still too fresh in their minds. 

At first, Harry tried to look anywhere but the bowl of water, afraid of what he might see this time. He caught sight of a fly that had accidentally flown in and apparently gotten quite woozy from the fumes of Trelawney's perfumed fire. It made a rather comical spin and fell into the greasy water. Harry looked on, morbidly fascinated by the ripples in the water made by the struggling fly. A familiar feeling began to overcome him, as the classroom faded away…

He was in a forest, a very gloomy and misty one. The trees were twisted into monstrous looking shapes as they reached out to the skies for whatever sunlight they could get. It felt more real this time, and he half expected to feel the rough bark of the gnarled tree if he were to just reach out to touch it. But there was nothing else to be seen except trees. Puzzled and affected by a great sense of unease, Harry stumbled his way across tree roots and shrubbery until he reached a clearing. In the darkness, he thought he saw something lying on the ground.

He felt his lunch threaten to make a re-appearance.

_No...please, no..._

His blue eyes were blank and staring, like that of a broken doll. They were clouded and distant as if he could see something behind him…something terrible and dangerous…something out of this realm, beyond his reach. His wand was still gripped tightly in one hand. Blood from a horrible gaping wound in his chest slowly pooled around his head, soaking his fiery red hair.

_This is just a dream…it has to be._

Harry walked towards the body of his best friend in a trance, reaching out to touch it hoping that his fingers would somehow go through it and he would find that it was just an illusion, but knowing that his fingers would touch solid flesh still warm and alive just moments before…

"Harry?"

Harry was jolted back to the reality of the Divination classroom with a shock. Seamus had woken from his nap and Ron was staring at Harry, looking puzzled and worried. 

"My dear child, were you having a vision?" Trelawney asked, her super-magnified eyes gleaming with interest.

"No." Harry said quickly, hoping he didn't look as nauseas as he felt.

"You were staring so intently at your bowl!" 

"There's a fly drowning in the water." Harry said, the first excuse he could think of.

Ron snorted with laughter while Seamus and Dean tried to hide their laughter with a coughing fit. 

"Good one, Harry," Ron chortled.

Harry forced a smile.

_...a pair of glassy blue voids, fixed in horror and pain at something..._

He was going to have a long walk tonight.

[A/N: An Augurey, for those who don't know, is a bird whose cries were once thought to predict death, but is now known to predict rain. It is described in _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them as a "thin and mournful-looking bird, somewhat like a small and underfed vulture in appearance". Sounds like Trelawney, no?_

I can't believe I only took about a day to write this. But Chapter 9 is going to take a while…I'm going on holiday! =)]


	9. Chapter 9: Battle Cry

Chapter 9: Battle Cry

"This is it."

"The big one."

"The one we've all been waiting for."

"Enough with the Oliver-Wood-impressions!" Alicia exclaimed as she swatted the twins.

They were up against Hufflepuff today, but this year Hufflepuff had become quite a force to be reckoned with. After their surprise victory over Slytherin, they were now in second place.

"They're only behind us by forty points." Angelina reminded them.

"And this is the last year for most of us to bring glory to Gryffindor," Fred agreed with exaggerated sombreness.

"Then let's get on with it." Katie said, grinning.

They walked out onto the pitch to the deafening cheers of the spectators, who were either wearing red or yellow rosettes. The Slytherins, out of the race for the Quidditch Cup, were mostly decked in yellow even though they usually disliked Hufflepuffs for "being a bunch of duffers". A small group of them flashed their 'Potter Stinks' badges from last year at him.

"And here comes the Gryffindor Team!" yelled Lee Jordan, who was acting as commentator for the last time and seemed to be determined to go out with a bang. "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley and Ladon. Hell of a side we have this year, haven't lost a single match—"

The Slytherins booed loudly.

"And here are the Hufflepuffs! Quite a strong side this year as well, with their new captain Aaron Fawcett!"

There was a smattering of polite cheers and applause from the rest of the Houses, while the Hufflepuffs roared with determined vigour. Aaron had been Cedric's best friend.

"Captains, shake hands!" said Madam Hooch.

Aaron and Angelina grasped each other's hands in a firm and polite handshake.

"Mount your brooms!" said Madam Hooch. "Three... two... one..."

Before Harry could take off, he felt his stomach clench into a tight knot. Emblazoned on one of the Hufflepuff banners flying stoutly in the wind, were the words 'For Cedric'.

"He would have wanted a fair match, Harry." Katie said, clapping him on his back. "No pulling back." 

"He would have." Harry agreed softly, and took off into the air to the cheers of crowd.

"Ouch, that had to hurt – Gryffindor Beater Fred Weasley forces Goodwill to drop the quaffle, Gryffindor's Alicia in possess – nope, Hufflepuff Chaser Midgeon gets it back from her, she dives, shoots – look out for that bludger!"

Kera narrowly missed getting hit by the heavy iron ball but managed to grab the quaffle before it went through the hoop.

"Excellent save there by the Gryffindor Keeper, beautiful track record she has this season—"

"Jordan…" McGonagall hissed warningly.

"Okay, okay…Gryffindor Captain Angelina Johnson with the quaffle – avoids a bludger – Argh, no – Hufflepuff in possession…"

Harry flew around high above the pitch, scanning for the familiar glint of gold, trying to keep out of the fray below him.

"Hufflepuff Chaser Goodwill aims, he shoots, Gryffindor Keeper coming down to block it—wait, is that a bludger chasing after the quaffle?" 

One of the Hufflepuff Beaters had aimed a bludger so that it was just behind the quaffle and now both were zooming at an incredible speed towards Kera. Taken by surprise, she quickly got out of the way.

"HUFFLEPUFF SCORES!"

From his position in the middle of the field, Harry saw Ron scowl darkly. Despite himself, Harry couldn't help grinning as he heard Ron shouting out advice to his twin brothers from the stands. 

"Nice bludger work there by Beater Macmillan, anyway Gryffindor in possession – Angelina dives, she sc – nope, stopped by opposing Chaser Midgeon – she zips off towards the Gryffindor goals – go Weasleys! Great shot there by one of the twins, Katie takes the quaffle, whizzes around the Hufflepuff defence – SHE SCORES! That's an equaliser!" 

The Gryffindor side cheered loudly and waved their banners brazenly at the hissing Slytherins.

"Hufflepuff back for another attack, Chaser Midgeon passes the quaffle to the Hufflepuff Captain, Angelina comes up to block it – damn, he got through that one – closing in on the goals now, he shoots—"

There was a mad rush as the Weasley twins tried to manoeuvre the two bludgers away from the two Hufflepuff Beaters.

"And there's Hufflepuff Beater Mockridge with that follow-up bludger shot that's looking to be the Hufflepuff trademark this match…and he SCORES! Twenty – ten to Hufflepuff!" 

The Slytherins cheered and waved their flashing green 'Gryffindorks' banner back at the crimson supporters.

"Katie Bell passes the quaffle to fellow Gryffindor Chaser Alicia, Hufflepuff Captain Fawcett swerves to head her off—"

In her hurry to get out of the way, Alicia turned a little too sharply and wobbled precariously on her broom. Her Comet Two Sixty tipped suddenly and quickly to the side in an awkward and unnatural movement.

"Oh no! Alicia!"

The audience gasped as she lost her balance and slammed hard into the soft grassy pitch fifteen feet below. Aaron pulled his own broomstick swiftly to a halt and circled down to her, with Angelina and Madam Hooch close behind him. 

"I KNOW YOU DID THAT!" Lee Jordan yelled into the magical megaphone. "CHEATING STINKING SLYTHERINS!"

"Jordan!" McGonagall said sharply, tugging the megaphone away from him. "You do not accuse the other Houses without proof!"

Meanwhile Madam Hooch had conjured a stretcher to bring Alicia to the hospital wing, as the two teams hovered in the air.

"We could call a rematch." Aaron offered.

"No, this is the finals. No rematches." Madam Hooch interrupted.

"Then I say we continue." Angelina replied, her jaw set in determination.

"And the game continues," Lee Jordan announced, still seething. "Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell closing in on the Hufflepuff goals…"

It was turning out to be the longest match Harry had ever played. Both sides were very determined to win, and the Snitch had apparently decided not to show itself at all. After about three hours, Angelina called a timeout and the very exhausted team sank down gratefully on the grassy pitch next to the harried and anxious reserves.

"Is Alicia okay?" Harry asked worriedly.

"She's regained consciousness," Gayle assured him, "but Madam Pomfrey said it was a rather nasty bump she had there."

Angelina called their attention back to the problem they had on hand.

"At this rate we're going to be playing all through the night." Fred complained, massaging his sore arm.

"It's crazy. Their defence is as solid as a rock." Katie said, furrowing her brow. 

"At least we're even overall." Kera said. Her wrist was turning a nasty shade of purple under her black wristband after her last attempt to defend the goals had resulted in a painful collusion with a bludger.

"That bludger thing they keep doing…isn't it against the rules?" Francis asked.

"No, not if they hit the bludger _after_ the quaffle gets in the scoring area," Ron explained absently, biting his lower lip and deep in thought. 

"Now if only we could come up with a plan to mess up that move of theirs…"

"Or Kera could try a Starfish With Stick."

"No! Are you crazy? Maybe if we could mark the Beaters more closely..."

"No, what we really need is for someone to break up the Chasers." Ron said suddenly, his face lighting up. "Don't you see? They've been attacking in some sort of loose Hawkshead Formation!" 

A grin spread slowly across Fred's face.

"I believe our ickle Ronniekins has a plan."

"Welcome back to the Quidditch Finals! The Gryffindor team is down to six members now due to some disgusting and barbaric—"

"Jordan…"

"—accident where Alicia Spinnet was thrown off her broom, purely coincidental that all the Slytherins have their wands up their sleeves I'm sure…" 

The match went on at break-neck speed after that, both teams refreshed after their brief rest and armed with new plays against their opponents. Ron's plan to distract the Hufflepuff Chasers with a combination of bludgers and blocking from the two remaining Chasers went rather well, and they managed to score two goals against Hufflepuff.

"That's sixty to seventy, Hufflepuff still in the lead, but Gryffindor in possession again – Looks like Hufflepuff Seeker Wimple has seen the Snitch!"

Harry quickly spun his broom around to follow the other stockier Seeker, who was about twenty feet ahead of him. He pushed forwards, nudging his broom down into a steep dive.

"Harry Potter zooms around to follow him – Come on Harry, you can do it!"

He was shoulder-to-shoulder with the opposing Seeker now, as the Snitch plummeted straight down away from their outstretched hands. There was a sharp pain in his ears as the pressure built up from descending so suddenly, but Harry didn't care. They were less than ten feet away from the ground now, but the other Seeker wasn't giving up either.

"Come on, Harry!"

Using every last ounce of his will, Harry urged his Firebolt forward. Five feet…three feet…With a sound of desperation, the other Seeker pulled back up just as Harry's hand closed on the little golden ball. 

"GRYFFINDOR WINS THE QUIDDITCH CUP!"

Harry pulled out of his dive just before he hit the ground, an odd ringing in his ears. 

"We won! Sweet Merlin, we won!" Katie squealed as she zoomed down on her broomstick to hug Harry, who was still clutching onto the Snitch.

The rest of the team descended on him, laughing and cheering themselves hoarse.

"Let's have a round of applause for both teams! Great game, Hufflepuffs, but splendid show from the Gryffindors, one down but still the overall winners…"

"We won the Cup!" Angelina and the twins yelled as the tangle of scarlet robes and broomsticks landed clumsily on the pitch.

"Kera! You were great!" Fred grinned, impulsively bear-hugging her. Kera made a sharp hiss of pain.

"You okay?" Fred hurriedly let go of her.

"I think my wrist is broken." Kera winced. 

"I'll go with you to the hospital wing," George offered, still grinning maniacally.

"I hurt my wrist, not my legs." Kera replied with a slight smile. "I can manage. Go back to the celebrations."

"We'll save some butterbeer for you!" Fred called after her.

As she headed up the stairs to the hospital wing, a familiar boreal owl landed gracefully on the railing, hooting mournfully at her. With a flick, it dropped a letter at her feet. She unfolded the parchment with her good hand.

"'You did well'." She read softly.

The owl stared momentarily at her with its pale yellow eyes before soaring off into the bleeding sunset. 

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Harry stared up at the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall at the storm brewing overhead. The exhilaration from winning the Quidditch Cup had lasted a while, until Trelawney had reminded them that their assignment on what they had seen during their scrying session was due next week. Harry reflected with a humourless smile that she would be very pleased with his homework this time.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked, concerned. Ron turned around.

Harry hadn't told anyone about his vision this time, not even Dumbledore. Some part of him was nagging at him to tell someone before it became reality, but another part of him didn't want to believe it…and telling someone else would make it seem more real.

"Damn, we're going to be late for class." Ron said abruptly, in an attempt to be cheerful. "Gin, you coming?"

As they went out of the heavy oak doors, someone bumped into Ron.

"Watch where you're going, Malfoy." Ron glowered.

Malfoy, surprisingly without his two cronies, just turned around and smirked.

"You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Potter." Malfoy sneered.

Harry had a strange sense of déjà vu. _That's what Tom Riddle said_, Harry thought in a daze.

Before Hermione could stop him, Ron rushed at Malfoy and grabbed him by the front of his robes.

"I've had enough, Malfoy! Harry's going through enough without you making stupid insinuations like that!"

Malfoy looked pretty frightened by his sudden display of anger and frantically tried to pull away from him. 

"Let go of me!"

"Ron!" Hermione said sharply, as she reached out to pull Ron back.

And then, they weren't there anymore.

Hermione stood as if frozen, her hands closed on thin air. Harry stared at the spot where Ron and Malfoy had apparently suddenly blinked out of existence, a horrible sinking feeling invading him when he remembered the vision he had seen in the water bowl during Divination. But wait…where did Malfoy fit in?

Then pandemonium broke out. All the students who had witnessed the sudden disappearance of the two boys started talking loudly or ran off in a hurry as if the spot they had stood at was now occupied by a lethifold, and some of the first years were so frightened they started crying. In Prefect mode at once, Hermione immediately set about calming them as the older students went off looking for the Professors. 

"Harry?"

He looked up to see Ginny looking at him with tears in her eyes, worried and frantic.

A sudden thought collapsed on him like an avalanche. _I've failed them. _

All of a sudden, there were shrieks from some of the younger students. Harry looked up to see a black speck in the distance, which was coming closer by the minute. Without hesitation, Harry had his wand out and at ready, pushing Ginny behind him.

"Harry, I think it's a…bird." Hermione said, pulling them away from the window. 

There was a raucous caw as a large black rook flew in, bearing what Harry recognised as a rather large Howler. _Mrs. Weasley?_ Harry thought as he went forward to receive it.

"No, Harry!" Hermione grabbed his arm, and not a moment too soon.

The Howler exploded with a great boom of murky smoke, throwing Harry and Hermione on their backs. They coughed as the smoke twisted and twirled in hypnotic patterns, squeezing and contorting itself into a humanoid figure. A figure Harry could only recognise too well.

"Voldemort." Harry croaked, his scar smarting like a brand.

"I'm glad to see you have not forgotten me."

They heard a gasp and someone shouted "_Petrificus Totalus_!" from behind them. There was a blast of blue light, but the spell just went right through, bouncing off into the empty corridor behind it.

"Minerva," the smoky Voldemort hissed with a thin smile. "It's always a pleasure to meet old schoolmates. But surely you should know better by now."

"Leave. Professor Dumbledore will be here any minute now." McGonagall said, drawing herself up straight.

"Liar." Voldemort said. "I happen to know that he has been called away on…urgent business…at the moment."

"What do you want from me?" Harry asked.

"I want you dead, of course." Voldemort said coldly. "But I will give you a chance to fight me, like a man…like your father. No more Hide-and-Seek this time. A real duel."

Harry stared mutely at the not-quite-opaque figure of the Dark Lord.

"Well?" the monstrous figure asked, its face twisting into a horrible smile. "Is the Boy-Who-Lived up to the challenge?"

"What have you done with Ron?" Hermione asked in strangled voice.

Voldemort seemed to find this amusing.

"He is fine…for a while."

"If I meet you will you let him go?" Harry asked, fighting to keep his voice from trembling.

"He will be free to return to Hogwarts, if he pleases."

From its unsubstantial cloaks, the smoky Voldemort-figure produced a surprisingly solid looking ball-like object covered with some scraggly white fur and threw it out. It rolled and landed at Harry's feet. His stomach gave a sickening lurch. It wasn't a ball after all.

It was Karkaroff's head. 

"A Portkey."

The memory came flooding back.

_"Both of us," Harry said._

_"What?"_

_"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."_

_Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms. "You – you sure?"_

_"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah… we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together."_

_For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears: then his face split in a grin. _

_"You're on," he said. "Come here."_

_He grabbed Harry's arm below the shoulder and helped Harry limp towards the plinth where the cup stood. When they had reached it, they both held out a hand over one of the Cup's gleaming handles. _

_"On three, right?"_

_And now I'm about to take another one willingly._ Harry thought as he reached for the gruesome object with its blood-shot eyes staring out accusingly at him.

"No, Harry! It's a trap, don't you see?"

"I'm not going to let Ron become another Cedric." Harry said fiercely.

Harry looked Voldemort in the eye.

"I'll be there."

"Mr. Potter, you can't be serious!" Professor McGonagall cried, aghast. 

"I'll be waiting for you." Voldemort sneered as his smoky visage dissolved slowly into nothingness. 

"I cannot allow this!" 

"I have to, Professor." Harry replied simply.

"Then you're not doing this alone," Hermione said resolutely.

"Don't you see?" Harry said in exasperation. "He wants _me alone. This is my battle."_

"No it's not."

"We're coming with you," Ginny said in a rare display of Weasley stubbornness. "I'm not going to let Tom hurt my brother."

Harry sighed, moved by the insistence of the two girls, who were now glaring at him with their most determined stance. Then something clicked in his brain.

_"The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed..."_

"Of course," Harry whispered to himself.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Everything's different now. Malfoy is in it."

"What's different now?" Ginny asked, confused.

"Never mind that. We've got to get to Ron."

Hermione and Ginny stepped up within touching distance from the portkey.

"Miss Granger, Miss Weasley…!"

"Now!"

Harry felt the familiar tug at his navel as he was pulled forward in a dizzying kaleidoscope of colours, with Ginny and Hermione on either side of him, his hand stuck to the grisly portkey by some strange force so he couldn't let go even if he wanted to…

His feet slammed into uneven ground and he stumbled against a tree root. Ginny bumped into Hermione, who grasped at a tree trunk for support. With a strangled choking sound, Harry let go of Karkaroff's head and watched in revulsion as it rolled away. Then he noticed a loose grip on his shoulder and turned around sharply. 

"How did you…?"

"If it transported Draco in this way, I assumed it'd work for me as well." Kera replied, letting go of him as she tried to clear her head. "Better than holding on to that… _thing."_

"What did you come along for?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"To help my friends, Granger. Or was that too difficult for you to comprehend?"

"Where are we?" Ginny interrupted in a whisper as they took in the murky depths of the forest before them…the very same forest from Harry's vision.

 "Cypress trees," Hermione observed, taking her wand out.

"Do you think we're in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Where is He?" Kera asked, scanning the trees around them.

"He's not near, at least not yet. We've got to find Ron, _now." Harry said urgently._

It wasn't too hard. Before they had gone more than a few steps into the dark forest, the sounds of a full-scale shouting match reached their ears.

"I'm going to hex you into the middle of next year, Malfoy!"

"Ron!" Hermione rushed forward to hug him. "You're alright!"

"You had us so worried!" Ginny said as she too rushed to her brother's side.

"Ron." Harry heaved a sigh of relief.

"Harry…'Mione…Gin…" Ron was lost for words.

"How very touching." Draco sneered, a feeling of panic welling up and threatening to overpower him. They certainly hadn't come to save _him_.

"Let's get out of here. I don't have a good feeling about this." Someone said from behind him.

"Kera?" Draco said disbelievingly.

"You were expecting Crabbe and Goyle to come rushing after you, perhaps?" Kera asked wryly.

Ron stared at the two of them.

"You came to save him? After what he did to you?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Shut up, Weasel." 

"Sod off, Ferret."

"Stop it, you two." Hermione said crossly. "You-Know-Who may be here any minute."

Ron turned white, and if it were possible for Malfoy to go paler, he did. 

"Let's try to find a way out." Harry said, now much calmer after having found Ron alive and well.

"He said he wanted to meet you." Hermione frowned. "But he's not _here."_

"And I'd rather it stayed that way." Ginny said softly.

Kera stiffened abruptly and held a finger to her lips.

"Wha—?"

An eerie crooning reached their ears.

"Oh no." Hermione whispered.

Something that looked like a large lion was barely visible from behind a shield of trees, and it was slowly stalking towards them. There was a soft swish in the trees overhead as its extraordinarily long tail hit a branch, and Harry realised that the strange creature had a bulging stinger at the end of its tail, like a scorpion.

"What is that thing?" Ginny asked in a frightened whisper as both Ron and Harry moved to stand in front of her.

The monstrous animal moved out of the shadows to reveal a human face. It was a face of a peasant or soldier, crude and roughened by exposure to the elements and slightly scarred. Its eyes were pitch black and glittered strangely in the weak light of the forest. The creature grinned to show multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"I'm Deimos." The monster said in a low and would-have-been-charming voice, bending its lion-like body in a mocking bow. Ginny gave an unintelligible squeak.

"You're a manticore." Hermione said faintly.

"Indeed. My Master has sent me to kill you."

"But he said he wanted a duel!" Ginny blurted out.

"The lying bastard." Ron muttered.

"I believe he also asked for Harry Potter _alone." Deimos said. "Fair's fair."_

Then he launched at them. Ginny screamed and backed away.

"_Stupefy_!" Harry shouted, aiming his wand at the beast.

"The manticore's skin reflects almost every known spell!" Hermione shouted, ducking as the spell ricocheted off its skin.

"Well I think we know that now!" Malfoy shouted back as he ducked the scorpion-like tail.

"At this rate all we're going to do is hurt each other!"

"Try aiming for its underside!" Harry shouted. 

"I heard that." Deimos taunted in a creepy sing-song voice.

"Potter, you are such an **idiot**! _Internia Incendo!" _

Kera dived to avoid the rebound only just in time.

"That's a Dark Arts spell!" Hermione cried.

"Who cares?" Kera snapped.

The six of them cast every single spell they knew in rapid succession at the beast as they tried to avoid its snapping jaws and lashing tail, but to no avail.

"_Expelliarmus_!"

"What in Salazar's name did you cast that for?" Malfoy yelled at Ginny.

The spell glanced off the manticore's back and hit Harry before he had a chance to react, throwing him on his back.

"Harry!" Distracted by Harry's fall, Ginny had tried to rush to his side, and the manticore had taken this chance to pounce at her.

"Watch out!" 

Kera quickly pulled her out of harm's way, but lost her wand in the process. It seemed like everything was happening in slow-motion. Harry watched helplessly as the manticore lashed its deadly stinger at Ginny and Kera, his wand flung too far away for him to reach. So he did the only thing that he could think of—he dove in front of them.

The agony was nothing like what he had experienced with the Basilisk in his second year. There was a searing pain at his side as the stinger sank in deeply, spreading its venom like molten lava through his veins, racing towards his heart. He keeled over, feeling as if all the bones in his body were being dissolved by boiling acid, but he had no strength left to cry out in pain. _So this is how it ends_, Harry thought dully. He barely registered someone yelling and a strange echoing of distant voices calling his name…

And then the world went black.

[A/N: I believe I just wrote a 9-page long chapter *blinks* I did half of this while on the trains in Germany. My notebook is quite a mess of untidy squiggles. Maybe I should go off for another long break… *dodges flying curses and hexes* As a matter of fact, I will be stopping temporarily because I have just read _Les Liaisons Dangereuses in one sitting and I fear I am at present indisposed to write in a sensible and terse manner befitting the 21st Century._

The Boreal owl is one of my favourite species…did you know that in Scotland it is considered unlucky to see an owl in daytime? (Hmm… isn't Hogwarts in Scotland?) 

I know in _Goblet of Fire_ there is a female Fawcett…this is her brother! (Creative licence, they call it.)

_Deimos_ is the Greek word for "terror". In the introduction of _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, it is stated that Manticores are capable of intelligent speech, but are not considered beings as they will attempt to devour anyone who goes near…kind of like Acromantulas. Think Hagrid will be making friends with this one anytime soon?_

**line-Granger**: oops, thanks for spotting the mistake. I got her confused with Tchaikovsky for some strange reason.]


	10. Chapter 10: Blood Ties

Chapter 10: Blood Ties 

"Think of something!" Ron yelled in desperation at no one in particular.

In a true stroke of genius, Hermione had set the dry twigs and leaves surrounding the manticore on fire, sending it roaring away into forest in fury when its thick fur had caught fire as well. But none of them were particularly inclined to rejoice at the moment.

"Wiggenweld potion?" Ginny suggested tearfully, trying not to look at the way her hands were getting all red from Harry's blood. None of Hermione's simple healing spells had worked, and the wound was turning a horrid blackish colour, apparently due to the poison from the sting. His breathing was painfully rushed, laboured, and very shallow.

"Even if you can find a wiggentree somewhere in this forest, I doubt you have enough time to brew it," Draco sneered.

"Unicorn blood!" Ron remembered suddenly. "Firenze said it brings people back even if they are an inch from death."

"Don't be an idiot, Harry will be cursed for life," Hermione snapped impatiently, running her fingers through her hair in frustration.

"Or Fawkes! Fawkes healed Harry when we were in the Chamber of Secrets!" Ginny squealed.

"But how do we call him here?" Ron asked.

"Don't you think it would've come to save precious Potter by now if it could find its way here?" said Draco.

Ron glared at him. "If you aren't going to be of any help, just get lost, will ya?" 

"I believe I already am, thanks to you lot," Draco retorted. 

"Silverhorn blood," said Kera quietly. 

"Wasn't that what I said?" Ron said irritably. 

"Not unicorn. Dragon blood," Kera replied, her eyes meeting Hermione's.

Hermione frowned. "I think I've heard of it. It's a species of magical dragon, isn't it? But it's rare, and useless unless it's extracted from a live specimen." Hermione eyed her sceptically. "Are you trying to say that you somehow have a vial of it and you just couldn't have told us earlier?"

Kera did not answer her. Instead, she reached into her pocket and took out what looked like a silver thimble, except there was a wicked looking claw attached to it. Fitting it snugly on her thumb, she turned towards the unconscious form of Harry.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Ron said as he rushed forward.

"Do you want me to save him or not?" Kera asked coldly, her eyes blazing.

"Hold his head up," she instructed Ginny, as she bent over Harry, removing the black wristband from her left wrist. Ginny gasped.

Embedded into the skin were rows of dark green scales, glowing faintly bronze in the weak light. 

Kera lifted her exposed wrist until it almost touched Harry's parted lips. Steeling herself, she stabbed hard through the scales with the silver claw. A steady stream of what looked like molten gold gushed out as she gritted her teeth and pulled the wound open.

"Bloody hell," cursed Ron as the blood touched Harry's lips.

"If you feel squeamish don't look!" Kera snapped, her brow furrowed with pain.

Despite themselves, they looked on, half disgusted, half horribly fascinated. The effect was almost instant. The scratches on his face faded away. The grossly lacerated wound at Harry's side seemed to squeeze itself, forcing the sides together, and closed up. Harry seemed to be taking on a faint glow himself. At last, Kera stepped away from Harry, looking even paler than she usually was. 

Harry shuddered and opened his eyes. There was a strange taste in his mouth that wasn't unpleasant, but seemed to make his tongue tingle like he had gotten a mild electric shock. Then he realised that the excruciating pain at his side was gone, and even the scratches on his knuckles were gone, although he still felt weak and light-headed from the loss of blood.

"But…nobody's ever survived a manticore attack before." Hermione whispered, hardly able to believe her eyes.

"Wh...what's going on?" Harry mumbled as Ginny hugged him with enough force to knock the breath out of him. 

"Oh thank goodness, we were so worried..." Hermione cried as she and Ron rushed forward.

"Good to have you back, mate," Ron said as he bear-hugged Harry.

"You lied to me!" Malfoy suddenly bellowed at Kera, interrupting the little celebration. "You said your parents attended Hogwarts too! Why couldn't you tell me you weren't human?"

Harry looked questioningly at the rest. "Not human?"

"Why does it matter?" Hermione shouted at Malfoy, surprising them. "She saved Harry's life!"

"Who gives a damn about Potter?" he spat. "Filthy dragon."

"Stop it!" Ginny suddenly cried out. "There's something wrong with her!"

Indeed, Kera had been very quiet during Malfoy's outburst. She had turned so white she looked as if she had been carved out of marble. Or she would have if she hadn't been shaking so hard. Her pale eyes were wide-open and fixed straight-ahead, but she didn't seem to be seeing anything.

"Who cares about an over-sized lizard." Malfoy muttered unconvincingly, trying to turn away from her but not managing very well. 

Despite himself Draco rushed forward and caught her before she collapsed.

Kera seemed to be in great pain. Sweat rolled down her face and she was shuddering continuously. Her dark hair formed a stark contrast with the unnatural paleness of her face, and her eyes were blank and unseeing.

"...I didn't mean what I said...Kera..." Malfoy mumbled, helplessly holding on to her.

"Oh in the name of Merlin, surely one little wound like that shouldn't hurt this much," muttered Hermione as she took hold of Kera's left wrist and flipped it over. But there was no wound. There wasn't even a scar or scab to show where she had stabbed the claw through. But her other hand was clasped to her side so tightly that the knuckles were even whiter than the rest of her. The same side, Harry noticed, where he had gotten injured.

"What's wrong with her?" Harry asked anxiously, holding to Ginny for support and trying to get up.

"Shut up!" Malfoy suddenly turned towards him, eyes blazing with anger and hatred—the kind of hate Harry himself might have felt towards anyone who had hurt Sirius, Hermione or Ron. 

"It's all your fault, Potter! If she hadn't tried to heal you—"

Kera let out a great shuddering gasp, and went still.

"KERA!"

"...I'm...okay, Draco," she managed as her eyes regained focus.

"Did you _have_ to go all Gryffindor on me?" Malfoy glowered, calming down slightly.

"I'm afraid I will be doing so again, in a while." Kera said with a mirthless smile.

"What do you mean?" Hermione frowned.

"The healing comes with its price," Kera finally replied. "I have gone against the Laws of my magic. As punishment, and to restore the balance, for the next seven hours I will have to bear all the pain Harry has ever felt, but tripled in strength."

Harry swallowed hard as he remembered the Cruciatus curse he had suffered from Voldemort. Nobody could withstand three-fold of something like that and remain sane...or alive. 

"But Fawkes—" Ginny began.

"I resent being categorised with a beast, Weasley." Kera said, some of her usual curtness returning. She grimaced as she leant against a nearby tree for support and pushed Malfoy away.

"Go. Before that manticore comes back. _Now_."

"We can't leave you here alone!" Ron protested. 

"Yes you can." Kera snapped. "I need to be conscious to maintain my human form. If you don't leave before I lose control..."

There was a tense silence.

"They can go. I'm staying." Malfoy said with surprising determination, their eyes locking in a battle of wills. Pale grey against pale green.

"We're not leaving anyone behind." Harry said resolutely. "Ron, give her a hand."

Kera glared at the five of them then sighed and got up with some difficulty, leaning heavily on Malfoy and Ron.

"Then I hope you have a plan."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"We've just been going around in circles!" Ginny cried helplessly.

"Oh shush." Hermione chided, hoping Kera hadn't heard Ginny. But then again, she probably needn't have worried.

Kera was beginning to become too heavy for the two boys. She had collapsed twice along the way, and each time her transformation had become more marked. While she hardly reached Ron's shoulder normally, her limbs had lengthened and she was almost taller than him now, towering over Malfoy, who struggled to steady her. Her nails had since grown long and sharp, making her hands more claw-like. The scales that had been at her wrists had spread up to her neck and were already covering her hands completely. Harry also noticed a growing lump at her back, which seemed to be wings. But the scariest were her eyes. They had starting to roll about almost as crazily as Mad-eyed Moody's magical eye, and they were steadily becoming more reptilian.

"Can't...hold..." she hissed.

"No, Kera, you can make it, hold on!" Harry told her encouragingly, aware that she was speaking in Parseltongue and vaguely registering what her accent meant now. 

Harry could almost physically feel the waves of weariness coming off the group, now bogged down by two near-invalids. Malfoy and Ron had (thankfully) stopped shooting death-glares at each other at importunate moments, and Ginny and Hermione were starting to stumble more frequently even though they supported him without complaint. At this rate they weren't going to make it back to the castle before sundown, and they were going to be easy prey to the creatures lurking in this strange forest. 

"She's here." Kera suddenly hissed.

"Who?" Harry asked, feeling as if there was an icy fist clenching his stomach.

"Kendra."

Harry wracked his brains, trying to think of anyone or anything he knew by that name, but came up with a blank.

"Who's Kendra?" he asked, scanning the rapidly darkening forest. 

There was a plaintive mew from somewhere to the left of them as if in answer, and something small and grey leapt out at them.

"It's Kera's cat!" Ginny said, recognising the big green eyes.

A second larger orange creature crept out of the underbrush.

"Crookshanks?"

"And is that a _runespoor_ on his back?" Ron asked in amazement.

It was a full grown adult, patterned with brilliant orange and black stripes, with its heavy six-foot-long body coiled loosely around Crookshanks's body. The tomcat didn't seem to mind, meowing proudly at Hermione for having found them.

"They sssaid their missstressessss were losst." The middle head hissed to Harry.

"Is Kera okay?" The left head interrupted anxiously, trying in vain to lift the rest of its body up to have a better look at her.

"Obviously not." The right head snapped. "Stop asking stupid questions."

"Seth, Sam and Sebastian?" Harry asked in disbelief. "How…what are you doing here?"

"I believe Sam just told you." Sebastian hissed with annoyance.

"We came to find you." Seth replied, with a quelling look at Sebastian.

"Can you get us back?" Harry asked, hope leaping up in his heart.

"We know a short-cut." Seth told Harry.

"Just follow us." Sebastian hissed.

"What is it?" Hermione asked impatiently.

"They said they'll lead us back." Harry translated in a daze.

"You mean all this time we've been in the Forbidden Forest?" Malfoy exclaimed.

They ignored him and followed the sprinting felines as quickly as they could.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

They had been travelling for over an hour and had by now found a well-worn forest path when Kendra stopped short, seeming to sniff the air. There was a silent communication between the cats and the three-headed serpent.

"She says there's something up ahead." Seth informed Harry.

"What is it?"

"We don't know. But we are near the school now."

Sam stuck out his forked tongue to smell the humid air.

"I sssmell danger."

They had made their way to the edge of the forest when a blaze of distant fire caught their eye.

"It's not the manticore, is it?" Ginny whispered.

"Too big." Ron said.

"Damn." Malfoy cursed. "It's a Balrog."

"Look, there's another one!"

"What the…"

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Over there…a troll on the back of some weird animal." Harry pointed out.

"That's a graphorn." Hermione said worriedly.

"There's a whole_ army_ of them!" Ginny whispered.

Hogwarts was under siege. The Balrogs were waving their fiery arms and setting everything around them on fire; the mountain trolls welded clubs or axes, and tried to smash rocks and chains against the sturdy school walls. The graphorns were trying to gore everything that moved, sometimes unseating its riders. From their cover in the thick shrubbery of the forest, they spotted a few other creatures; nundus, quintapeds and some forest trolls. Harry realised that this was the menagerie of fearsome magical creatures he had seen standing in the mist in Voldemort's command. Most of the professors were now on the grounds, shooting an array of curses and hexes at the on-coming creatures to drive them back, but Dumbledore and McGonagall were nowhere to be seen.

"What are we going to do?" 

"Make a run for it?" Ron suggested weakly.

There was a great explosion as someone (probably Snape) threw a vial of potions at one of the Balrogs.

"I'll try to get the attention of one of the professors." Harry said, emerging from their cover before anyone could stop him, forgetting that he had been fatally injured only hours ago. He swayed a little unsteadily on his feet.

"Harry!" Ginny squealed.

"Harry!" came another deep voice from further away.

"Look! Over there!" Ron suddenly said, his face brightening up. "It's Hagrid!"

"Harry!" the half-giant shouted enthusiastically as he moved towards them.

"Trust the bumbling oaf to be so happy when he's fighting in a war." Malfoy muttered, earning him glares from all the Gryffindors.

"Outta my way, yeh stupid thing." Hagrid growled as he knocked out a graphorn, which had apparently lost its troll rider, with a hard swipe of a huge broadsword. 

"What are yeh all doin' 'ere?

"Hagrid, we need to get her to Dumbledore, fast." Harry said, indicating Kera.

Before Hagrid had a chance to answer, there was a sudden commotion and confusion among the attacking beasts.

"Giants!" Ginny shrieked, pointing.

"Mom!" Hagrid hollered.

"_Mom?!_" Malfoy exclaimed, his face a mixture of fear and astonishment.

From the tribe of giants that had advanced onto the school grounds, one giantess, who was obviously the leader of the group, came towards them, the ground trembling beneath her enormous feet.

"Harry Potter. We meet at last." The giantess said, her low voice like rolling thunder.

She turned one beady eye to look at the half-reptilian creature that was Kera and frowned.

"Little 'uns said they need ter get it ter Professor Dumbledore." Hagrid told her.

Towering above them all at twenty feet, she lifted Kera easily in her arms and went off in huge strides towards the castle, sending foolish trolls flying into the Lake and into tentacles of the giant squid for blocking her way, while Hagrid herded the teens in her wake. She held up a fist the size of a small car and tapped a knuckle on the huge oak doors. For a moment Harry was worried that the entire doorway would cave in from the tremors. The great doors swung open to reveal the familiar tall figures of Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. 

"Oh, you children," Professor McGonagall scolded in relief, dragging the five of them in, her eyes suspiciously red. 

"Thank you, Fridwulfa. Excuse my haste, but…"

"You are welcome, Dumbledore." The giantess replied in her deep booming voice. "This is not the time and place for pleasantries." The giantess lowered her burden down carefully, and then turned away with her son to join the battle. 

Dumbledore's eyes grew grave at the sight of Kera's limp form.

"Minerva…I'm afraid we will need Charlie and Miss Delacour."

[A/N: I hope that wasn't too Mary-Sue-ish. *wipes brow* Okay, Chapter 11 is half-written at the moment…it'll be up as soon as possible.]


	11. Chapter 11: For Cedric

Chapter 11: For Cedric 

Ginny had her head buried in Ron's shoulder, too terrified to look. Malfoy was as white as a sheet. He was clutching on to the railing of the marble staircase so hard he looked as if he was trying to make it crumble. The dragon writhed on the floor, her tail wildly lashing tail smashing one of the winged-boar statues into smithereens. Charlie had already tried stunning her, but it hadn't had any effect, she was in too much pain.

"Professor...do something...please..." 

"There is nothing I can do, Miss Weasley." Dumbledore replied gently.

"Isn't there _anything_...?" Malfoy asked desperately, forgetting that Dumbledore was a muggle-lover and that he hated him as much as his father did.

"No." Dumbledore sighed. "She is of the Wild Magic; the very same Magic that makes seeds burst into plants in spring, and blows life into the winds. It is more powerful than any wizard can ever hope to be, but it is not forgiving of those who break the Law. She is beyond our help."

Harry was in a corner, shaking, his eyes squeezed shut. Kera was screaming. Harry tried to block out her voice by covering his ears but it didn't seem to be working very well.

"Harry?" Ginny asked worriedly, trying to make herself heard over the frantic roaring of the dragon.

"What is she saying?" Malfoy asked suddenly. "You can understand her, can't you?" He turned to Harry, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him roughly. "Damn you Potter, TELL ME!" he shouted fiercely. "It's the least you can do!"

Harry shook his head, still trying to block the screaming, the guilt flooding over him. It was his fault again. She was in agony because of him... the memory of Cedric floated out of the darkness, lying there, empty...

Then Malfoy punched him, hard. 

"Harry!" Ginny and Hermione rushed forward.

"Is that all you can do, wallow in your self-pity and guilt?" Malfoy shouted. 

"You—" Ron rushed at him, bringing the much shorter boy down. There was a flurry of kicks and punches as the boys scuffled.

"Ron!" Hermione yelled as she tried to pull him back.

"Mr. Weasley! Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall said sharply. 

Ron let go of Malfoy with a one last shove and strolled back next to Hermione's side, glaring at Malfoy.

Harry wiped the blood from his lips, dazed.

"Thank you, Malfoy. I needed that."

Ron stared at him as if he'd sprouted another head.

"He's right. I'm being an idiot." He got up slowly and offered Malfoy a hand. 

Malfoy stared at him for a moment, then brushed his hand aside and got up by himself. Before Ron could rush at the Slytherin again, Charlie hurried up the stairs.

"Professor...I can't do anything." Charlie told Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sighed. "We need Miss Delacour. Minerva, if you would be so kind as to watch over the students while I look for her—"

"Albus! You can't possibly go out and look for her now! If anything happens I can't possibly—"

"Minerva." Dumbledore interrupted her. "We have no other choice. You are worn out and it is too dangerous for you to venture out there alone now."

An image of the Hufflepuff banner with 'For Cedric' written on it from the distant memory of the Quidditch Finals flickered in his mind's-eye. It didn't make sense, but Harry felt as if it would change everything if he could save Kera now...as if there would be a redemption.

"I'll go." Harry muttered, forcing his weary and abused body out of the door before anybody could stop him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and shrugged it away without turning around.

"You're not playing hero alone this time, Potter." Malfoy said coolly from behind him, whipping out his wand.

It was hard to find that unmistakable glint of silvery Veela hair in the nightmarish chaos on the grounds of Hogwarts. A stench of burning wood and flesh permeated the air, and the metallic stink of blood and clashing weapons everywhere made Harry's stomach turn. Flashes of light accompanied an extraordinary range of hexes and curses that could be heard being shouted hoarsely across the cacophony around them, followed by dull thuds of falling bodies and muffled yells of pain. The aged Aragog had led his descendents out in aid of Hagrid, and the place was a teeming black mass of giant spiders spitting sticky silk at the quintapeds while some of the bigger acromantulas were seizing the entangled creatures and carting them off into the Forbidden Forest. Flames from the fiery Balrogs had engulfed many of the trees in the Forbidden forest, and the earth trembled constantly with the pounding of Giant feet and deafening roars of anger. The deadly breath of the nundus crept up on unsuspecting fighters, not discriminating between either side, littering the battlefield with the carcasses of trolls and spiders. The two boys moved quickly and stealthily along the side of the castle walls away from most of the fighting and tried not to draw attention to themselves. When they passed the bloodied and unconscious form of the Muggle-Studies professor lying in the leeway of the walls, Harry had to fight an immense urge to drag the man indoors, and Malfoy blanched and looked like he was about to throw up. 

"Let's split up! It'll be faster that way!" Harry yelled to Draco as he rushed blindly into the mess.

"You mean we'll _die_ faster that way!" 

Draco cursed as he lost sight of the Gryffindor.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to leave the support of the wall after all. After Harry had cast a few strong hexes at the attacking monsters, he had been rudely reminded of his near brush with death by a violent fainting spell that had seized him so suddenly he had almost blacked-out in front of an charging graphorn. And now his head was throbbing again. _Where is Fleur?_ Harry thought dimly. He heard a loud grunt behind him and wished he hadn't turned so suddenly. He registered hazily that it was a forest troll and not a mountain troll that was attacking him with a huge club, and that it was also too late to do anything but throw himself on the ground and pray that the creature didn't have enough brains to aim properly.

But before the troll could reach him, someone shouted "_Internia Incendo!" and it fell, writhing on the floor in agony._

"Malfoy?" Harry said, surprised.

"Save it, Potter." Malfoy snapped. "I just didn't want Kera's effort to go to waste."

A vial of potion landed a few meters away from them and exploded, effectively cutting off all further conversation. They flinched when they were splattered with mud and pieces of graphorn.

"It came from that way," Malfoy said, grabbing Harry roughly by the arm and hauling him onto his feet.

It probably took them a little more than ten minutes to get to the nearest person, with both boys fighting back to back with unexpected solidarity and making quite a formidable team despite Harry's present weakened state. 

"Harry!" one of the twins called out, rushing over to them. "Ron and Ginny…are they…?"

Apparently all the seventh-years had been mobilised to help the professors as well. 

"They're fine," Harry assured him. "They're inside now."

"We don't have time for this," Malfoy snapped, scanning the combating throng.

"Have you seen Fleur anywhere?" Harry asked, ignoring Malfoy.

"Over there." Fred replied as his twin zapped an on-coming quintaped. "You'd better get out of here fast."

Yelling back a quick thanks, Harry ran off in the direction indicated calling for Fleur, the adrenaline surging through his body like wild fire, and not even bothering to apologise when he bumped into Snape in his haste and caused him to nearly drop a vial of explosive potions.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"Close you eyes and block your ears," Professor McGonagall advised. "It affects all living creatures, not just males."

Harry had seen Veelas dance during the Quidditch World Cup and heard their music—but he had never heard one sing. Despite having his fingers stuffed in his ears and his eyes squeezed shut, the unearthly melody that resembled Fawkes's phoenix song in a bizarre way crept into his consciousness, sending shivers down his spine. The tongue of the Veela was incomprehensible to him yet achingly sweet, flowing around him like liquid silk, coaxing his mind to relax and sink deeply into the enchantment. He lost track of time, and all he knew was that he wanted to music to go on forever.

When it stopped, Harry couldn't help opening his eyes in shock. Ron had his hand half-raised, as if trying to grasp at the last strands of music that were fading away rapidly from the air and from their memories, leaving behind a odd sense of loss.

"That was…intense." Hermione managed.

The next thing everyone noticed was absolute silence that now permeated the Entrance Hall, echoing with the residue of the powerful magic that had just been wrought. Fleur looked very exhausted, and was leaning on Charlie for support, with the dragon before her now deep in a hypnotic sleep. She was small as dragons go (perhaps because she wasn't fully adult) and despite the name, her horns were not silver, but an incandescent dark green. Her silver-green wings were leathery, folded at her sides like huge tents. Long scaled limbs rippled with hidden muscles and ended in fearsome silver-clawed feet. The awesome and almost majestic lines of the lizard-like face were softened slightly by her slumber, and a glint of green was barely visible from beneath her partly closed eyelids. 

Looking at this strangely beautiful creature in front of him, Harry suddenly found that could almost understand Hagrid's obsession with dragons. An immense sense of release came over him, as if all the darkness and shadows of the past year had simply melted away. They'd brought her back, and she was going to make it.

The great doors burst open and a slightly singed and mud-splattered Hagrid entered, followed by a horde of weary but equally cheerful and battered students and staff.

"Professor Dumbledore! They've retreated! We got 'em!" 

The seventh-years burst out with cheers, and the twins rushed forward to engulf their siblings in a mess of red hair and tears of relief and happiness. Even some of the staff couldn't help smiling as the students celebrated, not caring what House they were from or how covered with mud and blood they were.

"And crikey!" Hagrid said in delight. "That's a dragon!"

"Yeah." Harry agreed, dazed. It was over.

[A/N: This chapter was a bit on the short side, sorry. It's really more of a filler-chapter. I'm not very good at action scenes you see. *grins* I have a tendency to want to get done with them as fast as humanly possible.

By the way, the dark arts spell Malfoy casts is intended to make the victim burn up from within. Not as deadly as the Killing Curse, only kills smaller creatures. I'm not sure, but I suspect I borrowed the idea of _Internia Incendo from somebody else (because I'm usually not really one for thinking up things like these), but I can't remember who. The original creator is free to contact me to claim copyright. =)_

**Kerry Leprechaun**: Well, it was a choice between either terse or long winded! As aforementioned, not good at writing action sequences. *sheepish grin*]


	12. Chapter 12: Revelations

Chapter 12: Revelations 

Madam Pomfrey had been most displeased with him for running off to look for Fleur after she had specifically told him not to exert himself after administering her Sanguine potion, so Harry had been kept in the Hospital Wing for about a week having nutrient-potions forced down his throat. Kera had also been transferred to a private bed right at the back of the Wing, curtained up to keep out prying eyes even though she had turned back to her human form. He had only been allowed to see her once, and even then she had been too weak to do anything more than look at him through half-closed eyes. 

But Madam Pomfrey's annoyance had been nothing compared to Hermione's outrage when she had heard that Harry would have to take his O.W.L.s like everyone else. Harry, on the other hand, had been rather glad to succumb to the mind-numbing before-exam cramming sessions that left him pleasantly exhausted and with his brain too full of complicated spells to transfigure their own hands into palm-fronds and potions to heal broken bones to think about anything else—especially the rather surreal situation that he'd found himself in not two weeks ago.

The exams came and went, and before they knew it, Harry was stumbling beside Ron and Hermione out into the sunny grounds, feeling like he'd just been sapped of all his brain cells but also filled with a great sense of relief. 

"Boy did I wish I paid more attention to Percy." Ron grumbled, rubbing his temples. Their last paper had been History of Magic, and funnily enough it had been about the development of standard cauldron thickness.

They flopped down under the shade of a huge tree by the lake, one of the few oaks that had escaped damage by the large fire during the battle. For a long time the Gryffindor trio just sat there, listening to the soothing sound of the lapping water and watching some of the Hufflepuffs helping Professor Sprout tend to the scorched trees at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"It makes sense now, doesn't it?" Hermione said suddenly. "Dumbledore needed Charlie around because of his experience handling dragons."

_Handling a dragon in pain, or a couple of angry dragons descending down on me for causing such agony to their daughter?_

"Let's go visit Kera." Harry suggested quietly.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The curtains surrounding her bed rustled. She was tired—incredibly so after completing her O.W.L.s like the rest of her schoolmates even though she had barely gotten better—but she smiled a little when she saw the blond Slytherin boy slip in, obviously trying to avoid Madam Pomfrey. 

"What are you doing?" Draco asked as he sat down beside her.

"Thinking up ways to torture Voldemort horribly."

Draco looked at her, surprised and vaguely troubled. "I thought your kind...didn't care about things like that."

"True. Those of the Wild Magic may bear no allegiance to either side. But what he did to Harry directly affects me, and I'm not going to just let it go."

"Is that why it hurt so much for you to heal Potter?" Draco asked. "Because he's on the side of the Light?"

"No." Kera replied. "He is my friend; it is natural for me to help him. But nobody can take away another creature's right to die, and that is the Law."

"Potter really has a death wish, doesn't he?" Draco muttered.

"He told me you helped him look for Professor Delacour." Kera said quietly. "Thank you."

Draco just avoided her eyes, staring down at his hands.

"I was the one who let Him in." Draco said abruptly. 

He closed his eyes, waiting for her to shout for the nearest professor or just hit him with the first thing she could get her hands on…and he'd be expelled—if Father didn't kill him first. What had he told her that for? 

"I know."

He looked up at her in surprise.

"I saw you slip something into Weasley's pocket when you bumped into him."

"And you didn't tell anyone?" Draco asked, his heart almost skipping a beat when she shook her head, even though he didn't show it. If she had seen it, how many others had seen it too?

Madam Pomfrey, apparently having heard their voices, drew opened the curtain, her lips pursed in disapproval. She was about to chase Draco out when she saw that unfamiliar troubled look on his usually indifferent face.

"Fifteen minutes." She said snappily, then left them alone again.

They were silent for a while. Draco's heart was still pounding furiously in his chest. He had really messed up royally this time. He'd been seen putting the portkey in Weasley's pocket, Potter and his friends had made it back safe and sound, and he had fought against the Dark Lord's beast army and saved Potter's sorry ass. And to top it all off, here he was associating with a Gryffindor who wasn't even human.

"Do you have any idea what Father would say about this...about me?" Draco asked despondently. 

She hesitated, then placed a hand on his, the oddly comforting gesture of someone not used to giving comfort. A friend, someone who had befriended him for who he was, not something they thought or hoped he would be. He grasped her hand the way a drowning man might clutch at a floating plank, hoping that she knew what she was getting herself into.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

She still pale, but at least she wasn't the exact colour of the bed sheets anymore. Malfoy was already sitting next to her, looking rather upset. Kera looked up towards the door when she heard them approaching, and Draco discreetly let go of her hand. She greeted the boys but merely nodded to Hermione. Malfoy did not leave her side, but simply scowled and ignored them. 

Harry sighed. Some things never changed.

They made idle chit-chat for a while, Harry feeling especially awkward. What did you say to the person—well, dragon—who had saved your life?

"I hope you are feeling better, Miss Ladon." Dumbledore said as he came in. "I imagine your friends have some questions for you."

"Ask away," Kera sighed, resigned.

Harry was bursting with questions but he didn't dare ask first. Malfoy had a similar expression on his face. 

"Why was I able to understand you?" Harry asked, finally finding his tongue. "I mean...I'm a Parselmouth and everything, but..."

"There are some very strong similarities between a dragon and a serpent, Harry." Dumbledore said. 

"Some aquatic dragons don't even have legs and wings." Hermione supplied. Kera rolled her eyes.

"Yes, very good, Miss Granger. As a result, most dragons end up in Slytherin simply by virtue of that fact."

"I had a little debate with the Sorting Hat about that one." Kera said wryly.

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore smiled. "I was wondering why the Sorting Hat took such a long time myself."

"But the First Task...the Tournament...I couldn't understand the dragons then." Harry said, puzzled.

"I think you're talking about ordinary dragons." Kera explained. "The language I speak is slightly more...human. It's understandable to most serpentine creatures."

"Pythostongue." Dumbledore agreed, his eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles. "A human Pythosmouth is even rarer than a Parselmouth."

"And your human form," Hermione ventured. "Is it like your animagus or something?"

"No, the ability is part of me, like my arms and legs are part of me. I'm born with it." Kera said wearily.

"Then why didn't you attend Hogwarts before this?"

"My godfather wouldn't let me." Kera replied, shrugging.

Harry took some time to digest all this information. Did this mean that her parents were no longer alive? Before they could ask anything more, Madam Pomfrey bustled in with a frown on her face.

"The poor girl needs her rest! Out!" Madam Pomfrey said as she shooed them out of the hospital wing.

Malfoy, suddenly realising he was in the company of muggle-borns and muggle-lovers, went off hurriedly, leaving Dumbledore to escort the three Gryffindors to the portrait of the Fat Lady. 

"You will have to excuse me. There is something else I must ask Professor Snape to do." Dumbledore said, turning to leave.

"But Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said anxiously. "Professor Snape can't pretend to return to You-Kn-...V-vol-voldemort again, can he? I mean, he's been exposed as a spy..."

"Professor Snape never returned to Voldemort, Miss Granger." Dumbledore said, his eyes crinkled with amusement.

"But last year...you told him to do something..." Ron protested.

"In your first year, Professor Snape's attempts to stop Quirrell have already exposed his loyalties. I am not in the habit of sending my staff members to their doom."

"Then what..."

"Remember I once told you Professor Trelawney made one other accurate prediction?" 

Harry nodded.

"It was the prediction that put you and your parents in great danger, Harry." Dumbledore sighed. "I believe her exact words were: _A terrible Darkness is coming for our lands, stronger and more terrible than anything before. The Children of Lughnasadh will be forged together in the strongest of bonds, and the Light shall like the phoenix rise again. But before that there will be a redemption in the form of the greatest and yet most natural of sacrifices, the oldest and simplest of Magicks."___

"The love of a mother." Hermione murmured. Dumbledore nodded gravely.

"Voldemort decided he would change the course of fate, so to speak, by destroying all the children born on the 31st of July."

"But there must be hundreds all over the world!" Ron interrupted.

"The Sabbats are times of immense magical power, Mr. Weasley. People born on the Sabbats have a burden of destiny upon their shoulders...not everyone can bear this burden."

"So I was the only one?" Harry asked quietly.

"No."

Harry looked up sharply.

"There is one other girl."

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The door of the hospital wing opened with a bang. Madam Pomfrey frowned, extremely put off, but Kera brightened up when she saw who it was.

"Professor."

Snape looked none the worse for wear, with nothing more than a slight limp. In one hand, he was holding a goblet full of icky-looking murky potion.

"Drink this," he said, handing the goblet to Kera. It didn't taste too bad, and was almost like drinking cold tea.

"Go to sleep," he said, taking the goblet from her and turning to leave.

Kera felt a dull aching in her heart as her eyes followed his retreating form. Was he angry with her? Was he...disappointed?

"Severus?"

Snape turned around. The lines around his face had grown deeper, making him look haggard. His eyes had gone a bit dull, the look of a man who had aged before his time. He looked so tired.

"I'm sorry."

To her surprise, he drew her into his arms. Kera had been under his care since she could remember, but he had never expressed his love or tenderness in anything more than a subtle action. Yet this wasn't exactly...uncomfortable. She buried her head into his shoulder, listening to the soft sound of his breathing. His black robes smelled faintly of ingredients from the potion he had just given her, but not in an unpleasant way. Rosemary, feverfew, agrimony, lavender, chamomile, valerian. And maybe a touch of ginseng. How many times had she sat at his table as a child while he patiently taught her to recognise the smell and taste of these herbs, and learn their properties by heart?

"Foolish child." He didn't say it angrily, but he said it fiercely. "I should never have let you come."

Kera hated the way the pain and self-loathing crept into his voice, hated the way he blamed himself for everything. _It's not your fault_, she wanted to say, but didn't know if she dared to say it. Or if she had the power to say it.

"It was my choice," she told him.

"But if I hadn't brought you here you wouldn't have had to make that choice."

She remembered the day he had come back, his face paler then usual and with some strange emotion behind his cold black eyes. The day he had told her about the prophecy and the promise he had made to Dumbledore. The day he had acted as if he was sending his only child to her death as a sacrifice to appease some monster. And in a way, perhaps he had.

"Then it is my destiny."

He stayed with her until she fell asleep in his arms.

[A/N: The title of this chapter was not meant to be blasphemous; even though I did get the idea from the Bible…I sort of remember the book of Revelations being about prophecies and stuff. So anyone who flames me regarding that will be flamed right back with the Flaming Sword I borrowed from Loki (always better to have a disclaimer somewhere first). 

And for those who need it spelled out for them, the 31st of July marks the festival of Lughnasadh (a.k.a. Lammas Tide). It signals the approaching of the darkness of winter, a time for fears to be faced and a time to get acquainted with our inner darkness, but also of the Harvest, when the fruit of a year's hard work can be reaped.

**athenakitty**: well I'm almost done with this fic…but then again this is a trilogy, so I will be starting Part 2 soon. =)

**nyssa**: thank you. *elaborate bow* (now was that Lockhart-sey or what? =P)]


	13. Epilogue

Epilogue

Their trunks were all packed and Harry was loading Hedwig's cage onto the train. Hogsmeade Station was swarming with Hogwarts students laughing and chattering and making use of the few hours before they reached muggle London to set off the last of their Filibuster fireworks and Dung Bombs, the excitement of the battle now worn off. The seventh-years, now qualified as full-grown wizards, seem quieter now having truly faced off Voldemort's monster army. Even the twins are just sitting there by themselves, wistfully looking back at the castle.

"'Arry!"

"Oh, Fleur. Hi."

"It's been nice teaching you zis year." She said a little sadly. "But I 'ave to go back to France."

"Well, um...I hope we meet again." Harry said, trying to hide his relief and apprehension at getting a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

"We will," she promised, pecking him on his cheek.

"What did Fleur want?" Ron asked as he came up with Hermione.

"She's going back to France." 

"What? Why?" Ron asked, not noticing the look Hermione was giving him.

"She has served her purpose." Kera said.

The three Gryffindors stared at her, the truth dawning on them.

"He knew." Ron whispered. "All this time Dumbledore knew this would happen."

"This is a game of chess, Weasley. You of all people should know sacrifices will have to be made." Kera said evenly.

"All packed?" Fred interrupted as he came up with his twin.

"This is the last one," Ron replied as he handed Hermione's trunk to the porter. 

"What about you?" George asked Kera, noticing that she had no luggage with her, just Kendra in her arms.

"I'll be staying with Professor Snape."

"You WHAT?" Fred asked incredulously. 

"He is my legal guardian." Kera explained.

"So he's the godfather you mentioned? The one who gave you the broomstick." George said slowly.

"He didn't know I'd end up in Gryffindor." Kera said softly with a smile.

They got on the Hogwarts Express, which had already started up. After the twins went off to look for Lee Jordan, Harry leant out of the window.

"Kera... why did you do it?"

She smiled at him as the train gained momentum and started to pull out of the station.

"You saved mine first, remember?" she said simply as Harry's window moved rapidly away from her. She didn't run after it.

"Wait, I..." But she was already too far away, waving at him until the train went out of sight.

"Till we meet again, Harry Potter."

[A/N: I realised I could have just put this part at the end of the previous chapter. Oh well… Anyway, this is the end of Part 1. I've already started on Chapter 1 of Part 2, but I think it will take a while. Thank you readers for your kind patience and support. =)

And since Chris mentioned it…according to the Ministry of Magic, a being is "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws". Therefore Kera is not a beast, but a being (as are Veelas). Although you notice that she is governed by another system of Laws as well.]


	14. Author's Notes

Okay people, the sequel is up! Sorry this took a while, I needed a bit of a break. You can access it via the author's page (because I have no idea how to link it here =P) 


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